SOUTHEAST HOSPITAL DISPLAYS WORKS OF ARTISTS FROM REGION

Area artists have "checked their art into the hospital" as part of a new program sponsored by the Beautification Committee at Southeast Missouri Hospital, the Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary and the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts.

The auxiliary recently held a reception honoring artists participating in the first "Art for the Health of It" juried exhibit.

Donna Gerard, a member of the hospital's marketing and communications department and hospital liaison for "Art for the Health of It," said the project is based on the theory that "the arts can enhance the quality of life for all individuals. 'Art for the Health of It' is designed to support and nourish the part of people that medicine and surgery alone cannot touch."

Artwork, in the first of what will be a series of exhibits, is now on display in a corridor gallery outside the hospital's surgical waiting room on the first floor of the Harrison Annex. The exhibit will remain in place until Jan. 9. Some 23 area artists entered about 60 pieces in the exhibit, Gerard said.

Art on display include oil and acrylic, watercolor, photography and other media. Gerard said some pieces are for sale through the Council on the Arts.

Artwork was judged by a panel of jurors, and prizes provided by the Cape County Area Medical Society, the Cape County Area Medical Society Alliance and the Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary were awarded in several categories.

Prize categories and winners are listed below.

Best of Show: "Hopeful Vision," by Juliana Comer of Sikeston.

Oil-acrylic: "Heart of the Victor, Lews Invalides, Paris," by Lee Spalt of Cobden, Ill., first place; "Brooke B.," by Connie Blattner of Jackson, second place; "Profusion Bouquet," by Connie Blattner, third place.

Watercolor: "White Gold," by Juliana Comer, first place; "Lunar Lepidoptera," by Evlyn Anderson of Dexter, second place; "Spanish Mission," by Carolyn Rannells of Dexter, third place.

Photo: "The Nuclear Flower," by Aaron Horrell of Chaffee, first place; "Potter's," by Richard Lawson of Carbondale, Ill., second place; "In the Eye of Serenity," by Ruth Ann Roth of Ste. Genevieve, third place.

Other Media: "A," by Zac Caldwell of Thebes, Ill., first place; "The Rapture," by Dessie Gross of Charleston, second place; "Jumbo Mountain Bull-Ram," by Larry Davis of Poplar Bluff, third place.