82-year-old “Op Art” artist Bridget Riley created a 183-foot long mural for the 10th floor corridors of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, England. Inspired by the colors used in ancient Egyptian art (used to convey peace and happiness), Ms. Riley said the aim of the mural is “to lift the spirits and to remind one of life outside the hospital.” This isn’t the first time she’s transformed the hospital walls for patients, staff and visitors. Twenty years ago she had two murals installed on the 8th and 9th floors.
Ms. Riley knows how dreary hospitals can be. After studying at Goldsmiths College of Art and at the Royal College, she spent two years nursing her father after he was involved in a serious car crash. The stress of caretaking triggered a mental and physical breakdown for the artist. That her work is in the trauma unit at St Mary’s meant a lot: “It reminds patients that theirs is a transitory state – that they are there to recover and rejoin life.”
The 10th floor mural by Bridget Riley. Photograph: Peter Cook/View
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