St. Jude Opening of the Kay Kafe

RxArt is delighted to have worked with the internationally renowned St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee and artists Robb Pruitt and Will Cotton.

Rob Pruitt’s paintings use a language loosely based on video games. They shimmer in blue, green, black, and white spangely board to tell a story of hope and encouragement. The pandas, depicted climbing up bamboo poles, “completely transfix the kids and take them away to another place,” says Pruitt. “Each of the pandas are doing different things, with an emphasis on munching bamboo. I wanted to encourage eating because I know that this can be tough for sick kids. The (spangely board) paintings are like a magic trick and have so much movement that they’re practically like animations.”

Will Cotton’s work connected him with a young cancer survivor and her siblings in the creation of a confectionary dream world. “I knew after visiting St. Jude that I wanted to involve one of the patients in the process of making the pictures that would be hung in the café.” They baked, built, and decorated a gingerbread house wonderland, which Cotton then transformed into two magical paintings. Cotton wanted to, “wind up with an image of a place that feels completely believable and fantastic at the same time.” He found that the maquettes made it “easier to convince myself that I was looking at a piece of scenery I’d never seen before. During the three months I spent painting from the maquettes, I felt like a ‘plein-air’ painter standing in front of a wonderfully unfamiliar landscape.”

St. Jude is the largest childhood cancer research center in the world in terms of the number of patients enrolled in research protocols experiencing successful treatment, and it is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. RxArt is delighted to provide a healing, positive environment in a healthcare facility, which has done so much for the health and well being of its patients.

This project was unveiled on June 19th at an exclusive opening hosted by Marlo Thomas and RxArt in conjunction with the grand opening of the Kay Kafe.