Although art may not be able to cure diseases or heal injuries, it is able to elevate moods, improve attitudes and help patients have a better, more comfortable environment to undergo treatment in. At Western Reserve Hospital, we've partnered with local artists and supporting organizations to creating rotating art displays in our infusion rooms for those going through chemotherapy. Every 8-10 weeks, these displays rotate with new artists and art. We also offer a public gallery outside of New Choice Pharmacy. Below are some of our current featured artists and their works.
Deborah Zemanek
Deborah’s inspiration for her art is nature and wildlife, which her parents taught her to respect at a very young age. Deborah particularly enjoys the beautiful autumn palette of colors in the Metro and Cuyahoga Valley National Park systems. Working as a therapist in state prisons and currently working as a therapist in mental health for over 35 years, painting has become a great escape for Deborah, a coping mechanism and a way to honor God and His creation. Watercolor has been her ideal medium, appreciated for its free flowing transparency that is unlike any other. Deborah hopes her transparency as an artist is clear in what she feels is important and honoring.
Khrysso LeFey
Khrysso Heart LeFey is a self-taught artist, having become interested in collage and collecting paper in the 1990’s. Khrysso, along with his husband and two friends, operate Artful Codgers and Crones, a gallery located in Canton. Khrysso developed a technique he calls “digitized collage,” scanning and manipulating images electronically, in addition to working with glued paper collages. Khrysso has amblyopia and astigmatism, two eye conditions that affect the way he perceives spatial relationships and an optometrist calls a “slight color deficiency.” Doubtless as a result of these conditions, he tends to prefer colors, patterns and textures that are bold and intense. For many years he saw these conditions as handicaps to his life as an artist, but with time he has concluded that all artists see the world in different ways and for him, being an artist is all about how he looks at the world. It calls upon him to look, and to look again and to look again.
Jeanne Fashempour
Jeanne attended the Cooper School of Art and Cleveland Institute of Art. She worked as a commercial artist, designer and art director for most of her career with a short stint as a commercial art and photography instructor. Jeanne and her husband own and operate Ledge Hollow Stable, a horse boarding stable located in Medina. Jeanne holds a USDF silver medal in dressage. For over 40 years, Jeanne has bred champion quality Newfoundland dogs under the Watchbear prefix. Jeanne loves animals and it proves to be her favorite subject matter.
Diane Lewis
Diane has always had an appreciation for the arts, whether it be visual arts, writing or music, art has been an integral part of who she is. After several years of setting aside her lifelong passion for painting, she took the plunge and decided to revisit her passion. Diane’s first piece called, "Winds of Change" is a biographical piece experiencing a myriad of swift change and illustrates her way of expressing that change. Diane believes that art is a means by which artists draw the beauty out of places and spaces that on the surface are not necessarily beautiful. Rather than succumb to the parallels of life's reversals, art helps Diane to reinterpret and embrace the change. The value of self-expression is priceless. Diane chose abstract art as her focus, because it is free from expectation. The results are simply her passionate imagination at the time of creation. Abstract is so flexible and has absolutely no limits.
Salvatore Cammaratta
Salvatore has exhibited his paintings, drawings and graphic art in New York, New Jersey and San Francisco. His work is in the permanent collection of the Noyes Museum in New Jersey and can be seen at the Fine Arts Gallery at the Butler Institute for American Art in Youngstown. Sal’s works are representational, nonrepresentational and abstract styles. In his representational work, he captures the light and color of the world around us. In his nonrepresentational and abstract work he examines the mind’s inner world of memory and feeling. Sal studied fine art and architecture at The Cooper Union in New York City and is fortunate to have studied with several fine art teachers. In New York, he studied portraiture and oil painting with Lajos Markos, graphic arts with Robert Redburn and Eileen Foti and watercolor and painting with Maryann Neilson and W. Carl Burger.
