If those hospital's walls could talk Murals, as digital art will endure facility's closing

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By Ellie Oleson CORRESPONDENT Source: News Telegram.com

When patients and staff complete their move from Westboro State Hospital, they will be leaving behind beautiful grounds, a beach on Lake Chauncy and a set of murals that will be reborn as digital art and continue to brighten lives at a new hospital in Worcester.

Local painter and cake decorator Rosalie LaCroix of Auburn may be best known as the artist who painted global flora and fauna on the 10-panel, plexiglass decagonal ceiling over the energy exhibit at the Worcester EcoTarium science and nature museum, but she is proudest of the work she did in the Adolescent Unit at Westboro State Hospital.

“I felt so privileged to do this. It felt wonderful to see the happiness the murals brought the children,” she said.

Her first 15-foot by 4-foot mural, created at the hospital in 2005, is a sunny ocean beach scene, with children building sand castles, flying kites and frolicking in the waves.

Three additional murals, created in 2006 and 2007, show a magical rain forest, an underwater vista, and a playful garden scene. Each painted world was carefully tailored for her young audience to be non-threatening, though realistic.

“I tried to put in things that would make a difference to the children,” she said.

Prominent in the rain forest mural are a pair of small hippopotamuses, monkeys, and an orangutan hanging from a branch near a waterfall. “He is testing the water, and was taken from an actual photograph. The children named him Tanny,” Mrs. LaCroix said.

Even predators are friendly in her rain forest Eden. An alligator is seen swimming by with its mouth closed and a butterfly on its nose.

Mrs. LaCroix worked five hours a day, several days a week, for months on the murals. The beach scene took 74 hours, the rain forest more than 100 hours, but she said she enjoyed every minute.

“The kids stopped by to make a comment or give a suggestion. I loved it. They got me excited,” Mrs. LaCroix said.

It is something of a miracle she was able to work at all, since she came very close to dying one day in October of 2004.

“My husband (Roger H. LaCroix) went out for his walk that morning. He usually walks four times around the block. But after just one time around, he stopped in to see if I wanted some tea. If he hadn't, I'd be dead,” she said.

Mrs. LaCroix had been up coughing and not feeling well, but that morning, she woke up with difficulty breathing. She had a ruptured aorta, which she later learned is fatal in 98 percent of cases, if not treated immediately. After six hours of surgery, followed by 10 months' recuperation, she was back to normal.

“I thought God must have something left for me to do. Then the (Westboro State) hospital called, and I knew what I should do,” she said.

Anna Chinappi, spokesperson for the state Department of Mental Health, said the murals have been used as valuable teaching tools for adolescents at the hospital.

“The murals have had tremendous impact on the youth, visitors and the staff. The rain forest and ocean murals have introduced new animals to everyone. The youth have learned new vocabulary words and have looked up the diet, size and habitat of the animals,” she said.

“Whenever visitors from outside the hospital come in and express an interest, it means a great deal. The youth see that someone is interested in them and wants to improve their environment. It also models for the youth the concept of giving back and engaging in their community.”

Ms. Chinappi said Caroline McGrath, executive director of the UMass Adolescent Treatment Programs and clinical instructor in psychiatry at Westboro and Worcester state hospitals, asked Mrs. LaCroix to paint the murals after seeing her work at the EcoTarium and hearing of her from staff.

“We are always striving to create a treatment environment that is welcoming, respectful, comforting, soothing and has a less institutional feel,” Ms. Chinappi said.

Mrs. LaCroix said she cried when she heard that the hospital was closing this year. “We thought we had four more years.”

The Westboro hospital, which first opened in 1886, is being replaced by a 320-bed facility being built on the campus of Worcester State Hospital, with scheduled completion in 2012. Adult patients have already been moved to Worcester, and in June, when $625,000 in renovations are completed at the Worcester facility, the remaining 30 adolescent patients will be transferred there from Westboro.

Ms. Chinappi said the murals will follow the adolescents from Westboro to Worcester, in the form of digital art.

“We are preserving the murals through digital photos and transferring them to a medium we will be able to hang at our new setting in Worcester,” she said.

The fate of the original murals is unknown, as is the future of the 162-bed Westboro State Hospital. Ms. Chinappi said a reuse commission with the state Department of Asset Management is expected to make recommendations.

Christina Silpe, Auburn's executive director of elder affairs, said Mrs. LaCroix' paintings and digital representations of the hospital murals and EcoTarium ceiling are on display in the Lorraine Gleick Nordgren Senior Center on Goddard Drive in Auburn through this month.