(From left) Christy Hodges and Ellie, Yvette and Ian Wolfe of Caring Canvases (Photo by Jay Paul)
This article has been updated.
Art has long been viewed as a source of healing and joy. When Short Pump resident Yvette Wolfe’s father received a cancer diagnosis in March 2020, her daughter Ellie, 14, wanted to do something to cheer him up and turned to her love of art to brighten up his home. This lit a spark for her to paint more, and at the onset of the pandemic she started meeting outdoors with neighborhood friends to create bright and cheerful images, both as a hobby and as a mood booster for her grandfather, friends and family. During an afternoon walk, Yvette, Ellie, and friend and neighbor Christy Hodges began discussing the paintings.
“I was like, ‘Gosh, it’s a shame we can’t do something with those,’ … thinking about the Canterbury [Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center] home,” Yvette says. “And I said, ‘You know, do you think that would be something that was welcomed?’ And Christy said, ‘Absolutely I do, and I can reach out to some of the homes and get the interest level.’ ”
Hodges is a purchasing consultant with procurement company HPSI Purchasing Services, and her work brings her to a large network of senior living facilities. Richmond’s Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center was particularly affected by an outbreak of COVID-19 early on in the pandemic, prompting the group to want to do something for the residents who were in lockdown to stop the spread.
The group created the Caring Canvases project, gathering neighbors outdoors on Thursday evenings to create paintings that Hodges would distribute to area senior living facilities, starting with Westminster Canterbury (a separate facility from Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, which was not accepting outside visitors at the time).
When other facilities heard about the project, they contacted Hodges to ask if they, too, could receive art for their residents. The idea expanded, and the group formed a partnership with frozen yogurt shop Sweet Frog. During the summer, Ellie and her brother, Ian, 17, would sit outside Sweet Frog on Saturdays, and people would drop off art donations. Ian often assists with loading and transporting the canvases.
“It’s nice to give back to people that don’t really have the opportunity to experience … the outside world in the pandemic, especially at senior living homes where they can’t really get out and do anything,” he says.
Sweet Frog donates a coupon for a free cup of frozen yogurt for every donation made to Caring Canvases. Currently a drop-off bin is located at the Sweet Frog location in West Broad Village, 11321 W. Broad St. Anyone is welcome to donate art, no matter their skill level.
To date, Hodges says about 500 pieces of art have been donated and distributed to 10 senior living facilities. Cheerful images of butterflies and sunsets are intended to bring calm and hope to the residents.
“It feels good to know that you put a smile on someone else’s face,” Ellie says.
Some of the recipients and contributors involved in the Caring Canvases project (Photos courtesy Caring Canvases)
Hodges says the response from the senior facilities has been positive. An email from Saint Francis Home in Manchester reads, “It has been a joy to deliver the artwork to residents today. Many have blank walls that they’ve been looking at for a few months straight, so having a splash of brightness and joy will go a long way to improving their outlooks during this challenging time.”
Yvette says the group has heard from many senior facilities’ activities coordinators, saying the art deliveries are something for the residents to look forward to. “They put them on a cart and they roll them down the hall, and people pick out the painting that they like or that resonates with them or means something to them,” she says. “It just brightens up their day.”
Caring Canvases is also partnering with sip-and-paint studios Painting With a Twist and Wine & Design. Both have donated paintings to the project, and Yvette says they’ve booked a friends-and-family night at Painting With a Twist next month, with all of the paintings to be donated to Caring Canvases. It’s a trial run with the hope of offering similar nights to the public in the future.
“We didn’t really expect to grow this much,” Yvette says. “We just saw Canterbury [Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center] suffering so much and having so many residents with COVID, and then it just sort of organically grew.”
In August 2020, Yvette’s father died from breathing complications associated with his cancer. Due to the pandemic, his family was unable to be with him.
“Caring Canvases means even more to all of us today as we truly know the feeling of having loved ones alone and scared,” Yvette says.
Post-pandemic, they plan to continue the project, “as long as [the paintings are] needed, as long as there’s a demand for it and people are welcoming them,” Hodges says.
An earlier version of this article referred to residents at the Westminster Canterbury home; it has been corrected to refer to the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center.
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