Rooms with a View
RNs team with junior artists to transform the plain walls of hospital rooms into vistas of calm and comfort

By Rebecca Ray
June 28, 2004

Those who enter the pediatrics phlebotomy lab room at UCLA Medical Center won’t find themselves surrounded by sterile white walls, but by killer whales, sea turtles, dolphins, seahorses, and a variety of fish.

On the four walls of the room, animals swim through soft, blue ocean waves that ripple against the backdrop of a sunset. The scene is part of a mural that Suzanne Travis, RN, who works in the home health department at UCLA Medical Center, and her friend Marlene Greenberg, a former oncology RN, helped paint to comfort children who were nervous about being at the hospital.

Travis and Greenberg belong to a group called the Mural Girls, which Travis started last year. Although the Mural Girls have painted only one room so far, they would like to paint more — and help give patients a more pleasurable hospital experience.

A mural “takes on a life of its own,” Travis said. “It’s so much more embracing than individual pictures.”

Through a child’s eyes

Travis and Greenberg make up only half of the Mural Girls. The other half is much younger and has no nursing experience, but plays just as big of a role: Travis’ 8-year-old daughter, Madeleine, a third-grader at Mar Vista Elementary School in Los Angeles, and Madeleine’s 9-year-old friend, Analia Rey, a third-grader at Wildwood School in Los Angeles. Madeleine, whom Travis describes as an amazing artist and writer, designed the glittery logo on the T-shirts and hats that the Mural Girls wear when they paint.

Madeleine and Analia painted one wall of the ocean mural on their own. The wall, called the “funny wall,” has mermaids on it: one that Analia painted, which has indigo hair and voluptuous red lips; and another that Madeleine painted, which is blonde and has French tip nails. Travis says the mermaids convey humor, and that humor helps patients heal, even when it’s conveyed through art.

She also asked for her daughter’s input when trying to decide what mural to paint. Travis chose the ocean when Madeleine said she’d want to see an ocean mural if she were in a setting where she was nervous or scared.

The inspiration to paint a mural came to Travis when she would drop off blood samples at the lab and see children screaming and crying in what was then a sterile white room. She and Greenberg, who are both moms and call themselves the “Mural Moms,” had painted Madeleine’s room with a jungle mural a few months before Madeleine was born.

“It’s a brand-new experience once a whole wall is painted,” Travis said.

The elephants and giraffes in Madeleine’s room still roam her walls today.

The Mural Girls began painting the ocean mural in September, after they received approval in July. The room, which is the size of a child’s bedroom, took at least a couple of months to paint. Although the Mural Girls usually painted during off hours, they also painted in the presence of patients a few times, which Travis said was a lot of fun.

Travis had seen murals on park walls, school buildings, and even pet store buildings, but never in a hospital setting. In fact, she says, she has never even seen color in an adult hospital setting. The only color she had seen in children’s hospital settings was from toys, like Legos and stuffed animals, and individual pictures.

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.

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