PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new mural at 11th and Chestnut streets comes from an artist who found inspiration as she battled leukemia at Jefferson University Hospital, across the street from where the mural is located.
The artist, Michelle Tremblay, loves flowers and has often featured them in her artwork. So, flowers became the obvious choice when she decided to create a lasting piece to honor the Jefferson doctors and staff who cared for her.
She saw it as a way to say thank you. "Initially I thought I'd donate a piece of my artwork and I hoped that they would put it on this floor, so when patients are walking around they would have interesting things to see," she said.
Instead, Tremblay's canvas became the blank, drab wall that she stared at from an upper floor of the oncology ward. She recruited longtime friend and fellow artist Polly Apfelbaum to make that wall pop with color.
The mural they created is called "Floating Dogwood" and now dominates the wall above the restaurant and music venue, Milkboy Philly. Tremblay hopes it will carry a message of thanks to the staff, and one of hope to cancer patients.
"Here's a moment of rest for you," said Tremblay. "Even if it's five seconds. Five seconds is five seconds that cancer doesn't get from you. Or if it's five minutes or five hours. I can't hand that to someone in a box. I just want it to be there when they’re ready for it."