Several years ago, Castleview Hospital was considering their plans to remodel. In the conversation, they discussed art for the walls.
“We didn’t want to go and buy a hotel package of art for the walls. This is our community hospital, we wanted the artwork to reflect the community,” said Mark Holyoak, CEO of Castleview Hospital.
Now the hospital’s original art collection is a burgeoning selection of 50-60 orginal paintings. The capstone of the hospital’s art collection was unveiled yesterday at Castleview’s Urgent Care building.
The vision for the hospital’s art collection was to do something that had never been done before. “We asked two artists to combine their very different talents,” explained Holyoak. David Johnson, who works mostly with a palette knife and Thomas Elmo Williams, who focuses on smooth historical paintings united to create paintings that document the most important locations of Carbon and Emery’s history.
The dramatic artwork has drawn emotional responses from viewers. “The public reaction has been the most fun part of the process. People walk down the hall and reminisce about their childhoods. It has been very positive,” added Holyoak.
Downtown Price was featured in the first painting. The emergency room is graced by a two dramatic paintings of the train bridge located by Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The newest painting in the Urgent Care building gives the vantage point of the back of Helper’s Main Street. From the view on 100 West, shoppers, cars and laundry hanging from the upper apartments show the many layers of Main Street life.
Arguably Eastern Utah’s largest art collection, preserves local history on the wall. Castleview’s original paintings are “timeless. They will be here forever like a time capsule,” said Holyoak.
Southeastern Utah’s largest art collection?
Visitors pause to look at Thomas Elmo Williams and David Johnson’s paintings in the new Urgent Care facility Monday.