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| Painting by Elizabeth Nicklas. |
Art contest winners are Helen Danz of Elk County Catholic High School, Josh Floravit of St. Marys Area High School, Elizabeth Nicklas of Elk County Catholic High School, and Matthew Rodich of Austin High School.
Artists from each local high school were invited to submit a piece of artwork that represented the importance of health care in the region or illustrated the history of Elk Regional Health System. Each artist also wrote a statement of originality that described their inspiration for the piece.
Entries were judged by Anita Wendel, the President of the Elk Regional Health System Auxiliary.
The winners each received $100 and photographs of their artwork were included in “We Are Elk Regional,” the Health System’s official bi-monthly newsletter, which is distributed to 22,000 households throughout the region. Winning artwork has also been featured on the Health System’s Web site, Facebook profile, and blog.
In addition to a work of art, each artist was required to submit a statement of originality describing the inspiration for their piece.
Miss Danz, who created a sculpture of a broken wrist held together by copper wire, said her work of art symbolized Elk Regional’s “power to pull families and people back together.”
“People all over the world, young and old, need a reliable source of medical assistance every minute of every day,” Miss Danz said in her statement. “Elk Regional Health Center has long been providing services for this area. The mending of the broken wrist symbolizes how Elk Regional has the power to mend physically but to keep and pull families back together.”
Mr. Rodich, whose pen drawing features a patient being pulled back from the brink of death by a caregiver’s compassion, said some of his inspiration for the piece came from the work of Michaelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, Italy.
“I worked very hard on this piece in memory of my grandmother, Helen Rodich, as she was recently a patient at Elk Regional,” he said. “I am truly grateful for the kind and compassionate care she received during her last days. This is my way of giving back and saying ‘thank you.’”
Miss Nicklas created a painting featuring the historic stone building that once housed the former Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital. Her painting also features a nun and the seal of the Benedictine Order.
“The sisters were a huge part of the upbringing of Elk Regional so I put a sister and a Benedictan medal, because they were started in this area,” Miss Nicklas said. “The old building has a large amount of history behind it and I wanted to focus on how the hospital came to be.”
For his pencil drawing of the historic stone building, Mr. Floravit focused on the moment in 1922 when St. Marys first became home to a community hospital.
“The hospital has a great significance in our community. Not only did it save many lives over the years, but it also represents a strong community from when it was run by the St. Benedictine nuns to being turned over to the community to manage,” he wrote. “We are lucky to have a hospital in our community. So many small communities have to travel many miles to seek health care. Elk Regional Health System is a very valuable asset not only for saving lives but for the number of people they employ.”
To see more pictures of the artwork submitted for the contest, visit Elk Regional on Facebook.
