Sitting in a waiting room can be a nerve-racking experience – especially if you are a child waiting for a surgical procedure. But a pleasant environment in the waiting room can help keep you calm until your name is called.

Artist Brenda Baker set out to develop such an environment in the dermatology office’s surgical waiting and recovery room at the UConn Health Center by creating and donating three works of art to hang there.

The state-of-the-art dermatology office, which opened last year just around the corner from the main Health Center campus in Farmington, gives UConn experts a new home where they continue to provide advanced medical, surgical, and cosmetic services. Thanks to Baker, the patients get to wait in a room with colorful images that infuse it with positive energy.

“During the opening of the building, my husband and I went on a tour of the clinic,” says Baker. “We came upon a room which is used as a waiting room for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer surgery patients and is often used for children. The room struck me as very nice, but quite institutional and lacking color.”

Putting herself in the shoes of her potential audience, Baker created three whimsical paintings intended to ease the tension not only of the children, but of their parents as well.

Baker, a patient of Dr. Jane Grant-Kels, who specializes in the early diagnosis of malignant melanoma, understood just what was needed, having been diagnosed with melanoma herself.

Grant-Kels was delighted when Baker mentioned that she was willing to create works specifically for the dermatology surgery waiting room.

“We have lots of art on our walls donated to us by our patients. It enhances the beauty of our offices both for our patients and the care providers,” says Grant-Kels. “Art is a wonderful medium and can transform a room into a friendly, welcoming place rather than a cold or frightening space. Art, like music, can be very soothing to our patients.”

The three paintings, each 4 feet by 5 feet, depict children in a waiting room. The first shows a second grade student with a bandage, clutching a stuffed dinosaur also sporting a bandage. The second captures a teenage boy listening to his iPod, seemingly on the way to baseball practice. And the third painting shows centers on a pre-teen girl between ballet lessons and basketball practice.

Grant-Kels says the trio rarely go unnoticed. “Already many of our patients have commented on the beautiful new art in our facility,” she says.

Baker notes that there is room for more art in health care settings. “It is my hope that my gift will inspire other artists to donate their works to UConn’s facilities,” she says. “To look at spaces needing decoration, and expressing their gratitude through art.”

For more information about supporting the UConn Health Center, please contact the UConn Foundation’s development department.