Richmond owes its 21st century identity to many things — tattoos, breweries, music, and, at least for the visually inclined, murals.

One of the city’s newest murals can be found at VCU Health’s Adult Outpatient Pavilion. And while there are close to 10 murals at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, several in the Children’s Hospital of Richmond, and one in North Hospital, this is the first external mural for VCU Medical Center.

The mural is a part of VCU Health’s Arts in Healthcare initiative. The mission of the program is to create a healing environment for patients, visitors and team members through the arts, including live music, visual arts, music therapy and art therapy.

“This wall entering the ground level of the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Adult Outpatient Pavilion was always a blank space that was screaming for an impactful piece of art,” says Alexis Shockley, the manager of Arts in Healthcare. “It wasn’t until a few years after opening that there was an all-encompassing realization of a need for art in that space.”

The initiative’s goal is to support local and regional artists with both their art collection and the murals around the campus. When it came time to choose an artist to execute the mural, Shockley says they looked to an artist who could paint from firsthand experience as a cancer survivor, Nico Cathcart. “I have always admired Nico’s murals and paintings around Richmond,” Shockley says. “So, this opportunity really spoke to me as a perfect place for her work.”

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From the start, the goal of the mural was to create a serene and contemplative space, which might give comfort at a confusing or scary time for patients. As she always does, Cathcart likes to connect to the places she’s inhabiting.

“All of the florals are from Lewis Ginter, where I went this summer and crawled around on the ground shooting meadow flowers from the ground up,” she explains. “I was focused on the looking up part, so it would feel like you’re inside the garden when you stand next to the mural.”

The purple ribbon that stretches alongside the piece is the ribbon color for all cancers. The floral colors were chosen so there is a subtle nod to the diversity of the types of cancer treated in the building. “For example, my cancer ribbon is magenta, blue, and teal and those colors can be picked out through the sky and flowers,” Cathcart says. “The Meadowlark in the piece is a traditional symbol of peace and serenity and the lark is often connected to the arts, used over and over in poetry.”

Although the painting took only six days from start to finish, the mural’s conceptual stage started last January with dialog between VCU and the artist to envision the finished piece. Shockley says they gave Cathcart no guidelines, but there was specific imagery that was front and center of the design process. “We knew that there would be a sense of positivity, growth, hope, joyful colors, and nature,” Shockley says. “We also wanted to make sure that all cancers were represented in some way.”

The new mural is already enhancing the patient experience when entering and exiting the Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. Instead of seeing a blank concrete wall, patients are greeted with an engaging and joyful mural. “Such a pleasant surprise that might, for just a moment, reframe their state of mind,” Shockley says. “Maybe they’ve been lost, stuck in traffic or maybe they’re coming to their first appointment. Whatever it may be, this mural will be a gift to them, an escape and a positive moment during their visit.”

Cathcart can relate. Her diagnosis was a common and very treatable thyroid cancer. But the initial parts of diagnosis and treatment took place during the pandemic when everyone was masked, which was scary for her as a hard-of-hearing woman who reads lips.

“The first time I walked into Massey was right in front of where this mural is,” Cathcart recalls. “When I was working with the board and Alexis to design this piece, I was thinking about what would calm a patient in that moment and remembering what did calm me.”

She recalled a sticker painting on her oncology floor of a bird that had been done by Noah Scalin, a friend of hers.

“It was there when I had to go in alone, and struggled to communicate, and it felt like I had a friend there with me,” Cathcart says. “I hope this piece gives at least one patient that kind of feeling. The art in the halls and walls of the hospital really goes a long way to making something that is difficult more comforting.”

With the new mural, Cathcart tried to convey a positive, uplifting feeling that would help others as she’d been helped by seeing Scalin’s art. Part of the beauty of the mural is that it’s the work of a survivor whose work has changed because of her cancer.

“I don’t think you have a scare like that and walk away the same person,” Cathcart says. “It made me realize how quickly life can change from ‘I feel invincible’ to ‘I’m not invincible,’ which made me push even harder to achieve what I want to achieve here on this earth.”