Marsh Scott, Harvest, 2009, 28” x 28” each, photograph montages on birch panels, at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Downey

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Similarly, Marsh Scott, expert with metals, paints and mixed media has rendered innumerable works in medical  buildings and hospitals throughout the U.S.  Her individual, site-specific designs enliven each location, creating a welcoming environment for patients and staff.  In their work, both artists (Marsh Scott and Leslie Davis) demonstrate how the medical and visual arts have much in common - particularly the notion that beauty uplifts - and that art can be an essential component in the healing process.

Changing the Environment

Whether they are aware of it or not, hospital visitors and staff have an emotional reaction to the hospital environment.  Yet, in the presence of highly imaginative art such as that created by Marsh Scott at the Women’t Pavilion in Hoag’s Hospital Newport Beach, Kaiser Medical Centers in Downey or Sand Canyon in Irvine, visitors and staff feel a sense of being welcomed into the space.  Filling waiting rooms and lounges with a variety of exquisite free-standing and wall sculptures, Scott handcrafts each with love, superb skill and intense labor.  The artist creates - from conception, design, cutting, welding, polishing, and completion of details - an interplay of light, space and form, mostly with polished steel.  At the Hoag Women’s Pavilion visitors are greeted by a sculptural image that incorporates images of the nearby ocean, beach, pier, and the charming sandpiper - the symbol of Hoag’s philanthropy and commitment to community.

Scott has created over 30 pieces for the new Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Downey, once home to a Boeing facility.  Her eye-pleasing constructions inform visitors of the aeronautical history of the structure, which is where the Apollo Spacecraft Development program and the Space Shuttle were born.  At Kaiser Permanente, Sand Canyon, Scott worked with the theme of eucalyptus and windbreaks, the rows of trees farmers once planted to tame the wind and protect the harvest.  Even today, several Irvine windbreaks remain.  Scott not only creates impressive art for each medical facility, she also ensures that the flavor of the past is inherent in each contemporary design.