Baystate's Cancer Care Center was moving departments so an installation that I had done years prior needed to come down. These pieces were made to be built in so they had to be torn out, thankfully with their frames pretty much intact.
As they were, they seemed heavy, in color and in weight. So I cut the panels apart because I did not like how the canvas started behaving on the crease of the accordion fold. With an inch or so image gone between panels, I ended up with a picket fence kind of look. This was mostly a woodworking project. I had to figure out how to make exact cuts for the frame zig-zag, while keeping the whole thing as light as possible in feel, yet strong enough to stand up to the never ending stream of people coming through and touching out of curiosity.
These panels won't ever hang perfectly flat without their containing frame and I had to come to peace with that and also with the loose alignment and fabric feel. However, I am pleased that the hospital staff valued the work enough to suggest that we take the time and effort to repurpose it. This is infinitely better than letting it go, which happens so often. Now it will join other pieces of mine in the D'Ario Cancer Center, on the Springfield Baystate campus as well.
