Publication: El Paso Times Thursday, June 18, 1998 Issue
Article: "An Art-Warming Experience"


"A star-studded night, painted by Annabel Livermore, is depicted in Thomason Hospital’s new ecumenical meditation room. The room also features other work by the artist.

The vaulted ceiling is painted of a sky that shifts from the bright golden light of day to a gentle star-studded night, complete with a tiny silver of moon. Carved wooden birds, golden with paint, are suspended from that ceiling. And the colors...well, the colors border on the indescribable.

You will not find this fascinating art treasure in any museum. You will have to explore the linear space in a small room that Thomason Hospital, an ecumenical meditation room.

El Paso artist Annabel Livermore did the artwork, spending a year preparing the room that is designed to give comfort to patients and their families at Thomason..."This is one reason the chapel is so appealing. It communicates something of everyone's experience here on the border and it is a place that will bring great comfort to many people."

Livermore originally got interested in the hospital when an assistant ended up in the Thomason psychiatric ward. Livermore established the Annabel Livermore Flower Fund in 1989, a fund which pays for fresh-flower deliveries to patients on special occasion. A tiny card accompanies the flowers, inscribed "With this little gift I wish you health & happiness." The cards also bear a colorful reproduction of one of Livermore's paintings.      Janis Keller helps with the flower fund and owns several pieces of Livermore's work. However, she said, this latest Livermore effort is not just something you see; it is something you enter.

"To see this particular work is as if you are waling into a work of art," Keller said, "It isn't as if you are seeing a piece of art or an installation in a museum. You are walking into a whole piece of art. You are enveloped in it.

Individual pieces of Livermore art are al around you," Keller added. "The colors...well, you can't describe them. You just can't. You have to see it yourself. But you are not a passive onlooker. You have to experience it - not just see it - to understand how moving it is."

Livermore's interest in Thomason explains how part of the work evolved. But the art might never have come about if the room itself had not come to fruition.

"We noticed people were gathering themselves in different spots at our hospital," said Jim Booher, director of facilities at Thomason.  "People were doing different things to console themselves. They would occasionally have Mass or some other religious ceremony in our private dining room.

"We wanted to give these people a place," Booher added. "We spoke to our attorneys and for obvious reasons felt we couldn't call this a chapel or a mosque or a synagogue. So we came up with it as an ecumenical meditation room."

Booher said Livermore came up with 10 pieces of art initially. But he said the room still was a bit austere.

So...crafted some specially designed benches, so ornate that they can hardly be classified as mere benches. Then an attractive recycling fountain was put in and there is a large, 22-foot barrel vault - like a tube - in the room.

Next, enter Livermore.

A year later, the 11-by 27-foot linear room has become something of an art treasure.   "The vault has three interlocking pieces," Booher said. "We noticed people were leaving things behind - flowers, rosaries, mementos. We decided to expound on that and encourage people to leave behind written mementos. In the catacombs behind the art, we encourage people to leave messages. We leave pen and paper."

Booher said they kept a nondenominational theme throughout the room.

"It's a wonderful space, and we're really pleased to have a space of this caliber made available to us - thanks to the generosity of Annabel," Booher added.

The room, which is on the first floor across from the information center, uses the Southwest scene. The brilliant colors achieve a soothing quality. A visit to the room is free, and it is open to the public.

An altar-shaped painting of a bird perched within a deep river canyon dominates the front of the room. But the art surrounds.

"This is an experience that should not be missed," Keller insists. "This is not just a chapel or an ecumenical meditation room. It's an art treasure for the whole Southwest. I own some of Annabel Livermore's works, but this is evocative of different feelings than any I've ever experienced from this artist. And, in the end, the atmosphere is a very emotionally soothing experience."

Whether it be the gentle warmth of a golden day or the silent comfort of the still, starry night, the art in this small room at Thomason is there to bring a moment of comfort.

And whether it be for those who need the comfort or for those who simply want to enjoy some special art, the room is there.


Read more:
Knight, Bill. "An Art Warming Experience" El Paso Times. Living. Thursday, June 18, 1998.