Continued from Page 1

Hospital administrators in general don’t recognize how powerful mural art is, Travis said. “It’s just so healing and comforting to kids. We’re so influenced by color, and it’s not recognized. The use of color and design affects even the parents more than they think.”

Since the mural was completed, Travis has received plenty of support. Fernando Villafranca, a phlebotomist at UCLA Medical Center, bought plastic sea animals, such as crabs and fish, for the room to add to the ocean theme. The man who sold Travis the paint supplies donated money to help paint the room, and the lab reimbursed her for the supplies she purchased. According to the phlebotomist, parents have given the mural positive reviews.

Coming attractions

A painter can tailor a mural to a room depending on the setting, Travis said, and the Mural Girls plan to paint more murals. Los Angeles Shriners Hospital recently gave them approval to paint three of its rooms — a playground area, a waiting room, and a procedure room. The Mural Girls would like to do the project with four Girl Scout troops this summer.

Someday, the Mural Girls would like to paint the massage room on the oncology/adult floor at UCLA Medical Center; all they need is permission. Although Travis, who was an oncology nurse at the medical center from 1985 to 1990, doesn’t know yet what mural she and the other Mural Girls would like to paint, she is thinking about a mountain scene.

The Mural Girls also plan to paint the walls of a shelter for abused women and children. Travis, who describes the walls of the shelter as bare, is thinking of painting a beach setting with a lighthouse. She said she’d like the mural to convey “happy-family-freedom-outside kind of feelings.”

The Mural Girls also paint for enjoyment and will even paint without reimbursement; they can always have a car wash to cover the cost, Travis said.

Travis loves not planning what objects to paint and just painting whatever her instinct tells her, she said. She loves the fun of the art being bigger than herself and of expressing herself through her paintings.

Travis has always expressed herself through art. She did art projects and puppet shows as a child and, as a nurse, has done art with patients. However, she said, she knew she needed a secure career.

She would accompany her father, an ob/gyn, on rounds when she was as young as 4. By adulthood, she had developed an interest in medicine, so she chose medicine as her career and decided to do art on the side. She graduated from the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center nursing diploma program in 1981.

Travis’ love of art has carried over into writing, too. She enjoys writing personal short stories and has written about her work experiences with patients, such as the work she did with AIDS oncology patients in the early 1990s. Although she has never tried to sell her works, she has thought of trying to get them published. She has also written and performed comedic material about her nursing experiences.

With the Mural Girls, Travis has been able to focus on an additional passion: “Art I loved and kids I always loved, so I thought that to combine the two would be perfect,” she said.

Today, Travis is focused on recruiting more volunteers to join the Mural Girls. If any boys want to join, she said jokingly, they’ll change the name. She also would like to continue to have the Mural Girls partner with other community groups and spread the idea of children helping children directly.

“It’s such a beautiful way for children to be compassionate toward other children,” she said.

To comment on this story, send e-mail to editorca@nurseweek.com.