Royal Jubilee Hospital lab workers are showing their artistic side in the Patient Care Centre this year. From now until the end of March, paintings done by hospital lab assistants and lab technicians will hang on the otherwise plain white walls.
Miki Morita, a lab assistant at Royal Jubilee, came up with the idea.
While other groups, including nurses and members of the community have put up art in the Patient Care Centre before, Morita thought it was time for the lab workers to come out from behind the scenes and showcase their talents.
Morita and seven other lab workers submitted around 45 paintings to the exhibit.
We're not usually in the spotlight,” said Morita. “Some of us lab workers collect the blood samples, so some people call us vampires.”
This art show is a way to bring light to the lab workers and make patients smile.
“A little smile, a little shine. If we can do it, that is our success story,” said Morita.
There is no theme to the exhibit, other than brightening up the Patient Care Centre.
Morita studied fine art in Japan before moving to Victoria, where she studied art history. Nature in Victoria inspires many of Morita's paintings, including an orca currently on display in the hospital.
Morita is donating five per cent of proceeds from the sale of her paintings to whale research in the San Juan Islands.
In April, the paintings will be replaced with photographs, also taken by lab workers.
“We're becoming a big noise now,” said Morita of her fellow lab workers.