Montville woman gives voice through painting

Arlene Sullivan speaks about painting just as someone would speak of a beloved relative; with tenderness and tangibility. For her, she said, it is oxygen.

Sullivan, an art teacher at Morris Catholic High School and a resident of Towaco, began painting in third grade, when her favorite uncle gave her her first paintbrush.

“It’s been broken in half since then, but I still have it, glued back together,” she said.

Sullivan went through school and college with art as her focus. She also began a family and taught art classes at Sparta High School. As a member of the Sussex County Art Council, Sullivan always stayed connected to art in some way both inside and outside of work. When she and her family moved to Towaco, however, she left teaching and the Council for a few years.

It was two weeks after the arrival of her third child, Jonathan, that Sullivan found another outlet for her painting and her peace of mind.

“Jonathan started having seizures and we had to immediately take him to the hospital,” said Sullivan, “I was so scared. He could have died.”

Although the medical staff was wonderful, Sullivan said, the surroundings were not. She found herself staring at the blank walls, counting the beeps hooked up to her son’s heart monitor.

“I’d never been immersed in such a horrible situation. I was surrounded by wires and noises that I didn’t understand and there was nothing to take my mind off of it.”

It was this event that sparked the idea for her non-profit organization, The Changing Images Foundation. “What if the walls were painted with bright colors? What if, for just one moment, a painting on the wall provided a worried parent a second of peace from their time at the hospital?” Sullivan said these questions, and many more, gave her a spring board to jump from.

Seventeen years later, Sullivan travels to hospitals, nursing homes, elementary schools, and health care facilities creating murals and artwork for patients and their families to be a part of.

“It isn’t really about me painting, it’s about them. I ask the patients what they’d like to see when they walk down the hall, what they’d like to create,” she said. “I know it’s only paint, but it’s my way of saying thank you God for letting my son live.”

One of Sullivan’s goals is to create a “Main Street, USA” mural in a nursing home, where residents can window shop as they walk by and have their door painted like a home on the street.

“A lot of older people in these places have trouble with directions and memory and it can be humiliating to keep asking. But, what if your door was painted like a doorstep to a house? And what if they took part in painting it themselves? It might help them remember, or at least take pride in their surroundings.”

Even beyond the patients themselves, Sullivan has had family members of patients thank her for her paintings. When their loved ones pass away, it leaves a beautiful reminder of their creation and time spent there.

“They get so excited and they can say “I live by the zebras, or the blue door”, or whatever we paint. This is their home we’re painting, so it’s their choice.”

Sullivan remembers one project at a children’s hospital where she saw a girl in isolation, looking at everyone painting.

“I asked her if she wanted to paint, but her mother didn’t really want her to exert herself, so I didn’t push it,” Sullivan said. But she kept seeing her peeking at everyone.

“I asked her once more, and she finally picked up a brush and started painting.”

Later, Sullivan ran into the girl’s parents at another hospital and they told her that their daughter had passed away, but they were so grateful that she nudged her to paint the mural. It was like their daughter lived on through the painting, they told her.

Sullivan’s murals are sometimes painted directly on the walls, on banner cloth, ceiling tiles, window shades, or whatever medium is requested. All murals are painted with non-toxic, latex free paint.

One of Sullivan’s favorite memories is of the Regional Day School in Morristown, a school for severely disabled students. She had the students paint butterflies on the wall for a 30-foot mural, even though it was unlikely any of the student would remember or associate their time with her.

“When I came back to install it, which I rarely do, I saw students just stop for a minute and touch where they had painted,” said Sullivan. “When you give a person a paintbrush, you give them a voice. It really is medicine for the soul.”

For more information about Changing Images Art Foundation, visit www.changingimages.org.