
The mural painted by artist and cancer survivor Nico Cathcart for the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center (Photo courtesy Alexis Shockley)
A cancer survivor herself, artist Nico Cathcart understood the anxiety patients experienced as they walked past the nondescript concrete wall leading into VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center at the adult outpatient pavilion. The feeling prompted her to say yes last year when she was asked to paint a mural on that very wall.
“I am hoping this mural will be a point of light to patients, supporting family, friends and staff,” says Cathcart, who finished the mural in late November. “Everyone who walks through those doors is dealing with something heavy. I hope it gives them a bit of lightness. Cancer is tough, but it can’t take away hope.”
As manager of arts in health care at VCU Health, Alexis Shockley is responsible for making spaces inviting, warm and healing for everyone. The program was established in 1986 and is the second oldest of its type in the country. A Radford University alum with a master’s degree in fine arts, Shockley worked as an art museum registrar, K-12 art teacher and gallery director before joining VCU Health, where she maintains the system’s fine art collection of 3,000-plus pieces.
Hiring Cathcart to create a mural was a “special turn of events,” Shockley says. “She knew the space. We wanted to transform it for future patients coming through it.”
The idea was to create an uplifting, positive image that could represent a moment of peace for anyone entering or leaving the building. “A cancer diagnosis and treatment can be really scary. The goal was to alleviate some of that fear,” Cathcart says.

The wall at Massey before the mural project (Photo courtesy Alexis Shockley)
When she was going through what she refers to as the “scarier parts” of her own treatment for thyroid cancer, Cathcart found the art hanging on the walls at Massey helped anchor her. “I am hoping this mural will do the same,” she says, noting she is free of cancer and in maintenance mode now.
A Toronto native, Cathcart lived in New York before moving to Richmond after a short visit here. “I just fell in love with the city and the art scene around it,” she says.
She created her first murals in Richmond at the GRTC Street Art Fest in 2013. Prior to that, she had focused on canvas painting. “I was always the kid who was going to be an artist. When I was growing up, I thought that meant I had to paint on canvases, that murals were out of reach, especially for a girl,” she says. However, after painting her first mural, she “never looked back.”
Cathcart, who is deaf, was diagnosed in her mid-twenties with severe hearing loss stemming from a degenerative cochlear condition. She wore hearing aids until quite recently, when the devices stopped being effective for her type of hearing loss.
While working in public spaces, Cathcart places a sign nearby to let people know she is deaf in the event they attempt to start a conversation. When you work in the public eye, she says, “you are not only creating, you are part of a neighborhood. It’s a rewarding part of the job.”
Being deaf in these types of situations can sometimes be a blessing, Cathcart adds. “Sometimes it’s helpful to be deaf. My superpower is that when I need to, I can turn around and face the wall and nothing can distract me. I get to choose when I am ready to turn around to interact.”
In the lively 12-foot-by-30-foot mural that Cathcart created at Massey, the viewer appears to be looking up from a field of flowers at a bird flying above with a purple ribbon in its beak. “It’s my subtle attempt of bringing a positive message of upward motion to those who are looking at it,” Cathcart says.

Cathcart in progress on the mural (Photo courtesy Alexis Shockley)
Birds started to become a focus in Cathcart’s work around the same time her hearing loss was becoming more evident. “When you go deaf the way I have, you don’t always know you are missing sounds. They just slip away before you realize [your hearing] is gone,” she says. One of the first sounds she missed was that of birds chirping. “They kind of became part of my own personal mythology and a symbol of resilience. Just because I can’t hear them doesn’t mean they aren’t flying. It’s a totem I have kept close to my heart as I move forward in life.”
The mural’s purple ribbon symbolizes all cancer, Shockley says, adding that the work of art “is vibrant and hopeful.”
Shockley has enjoyed working with Cathcart on the project. “She is enthusiastic, fun and hardworking. I love her work because it’s so personal to her,” she says.
Since she started painting murals, Cathcart has expanded her reach, working around the country. “Last year, I painted in 12 cities and eight states, plus Richmond,” she says. “I spent about half of the year in 2024 on the road.” This year, she hopes to create a mural internationally.
While all of her murals are special in their own way, Cathcart says the mural at Massey will always have an extra special place in her heart. “I was a bit sad to be finished,” she says. “I enjoyed the company of the staff and talking to fellow patients quite a bit. The piece will always be connected personally to my own journey in a way some of my others might not be.”
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