Sculptures add touch of undersea whimsy to hospital campus

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Wednesday, August 31, 2022

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Sculptures add touch of undersea whimsy to hospital campus

Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org

‘All I can hope for is it brings some smiles to some faces,’ Covington artist Robert Post said of his undersea sculptures recently installed at St. Tammany Health System’s Covington hospital as part of St. Tammany Hospital Foundation’s Healing Arts Initiative. (Photo by Timothy San Fillippo, MA / STHS)

It started with a fish.

More accurately, it started with two little girls – the rosy-cheeked daughters of Covington artist Robert Post – and his desire to make them smile.

And so, after years of specializing in hyper-realistic wildlife artwork, he decided to swim in a different direction and sketch out a whimsical and colorful cartoon fish. And then another.

And another and another and another.

Flash-forward a couple of decades, give or take, and nine original undersea sculptures by Post – now employed by a certain animation house in Orlando, Florida (yes, that one) – have found a home at St. Tammany Health System’s Covington hospital, where since late August they’ve been greeting visitors and warming hearts as part of St. Tammany Hospital Foundation’s Healing Arts Initiative.

“I can’t put into words how thankful I am that something that would have for the next 15 or 20 years be laying on the pages of a sketchbook … can be shared with a lot of people now,” Post said recently, standing amid the vibrantly colored, ceiling-mounted aquatic menagerie.

“How do you thank somebody for something like that?” he continued. “You can’t. It’s impossible. All I can hope for is it brings some smiles to some faces.”

They’re already doing that. No sooner were the sculptures installed in late August than they began drawing “oohs” and “aahs” from pint-size visitors to the hospital, according to Nicole Suhre of St. Tammany Hospital Foundation, the charitable organization that commissioned the sculptures as part of its Healing Arts Initiative.

Covington artist Robert Post works on a fanciful turtle sculpture in his workshop. The turtle, now completed, is among nine of Post’s sculptures hanging in St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital. (Photo provided by Robert Post)

“We’ve incorporated a lot of different kinds of art into the hospital over the years, from our first piece – a player piano for our lobby – to paintings and drawings and sculptures of all descriptions,” Suhre said. “Robert’s incredible, vibrant pieces really add something special. The whole goal of the Healing Arts Initiative is to harness the power of art and give people a respite from real-world issues, even if for a moment. Robert’s sculptures certainly do that, and I have a feeling they’re going to make a splash with our patients.”

Eventually, Suhre said, the plan is to have the fish migrate down Highway 21 to a permanent home in a new facility currently being designed for St. Tammany Pediatrics, the health system’s primary care kid clinic that was displaced by 2021’s Hurricane Ida.

That was the original vision of the project when it was first spawned nearly two years ago when, while dining at a local restaurant, Healing Arts Committee member Norma Richard spotted one of Post’s pieces hanging on the wall. It gave her an idea.

With a little shoe-leather detective work, she discovered who the artist was, tracked him down and pitched him on her big idea: to create a school of various undersea creatures – an octopus, a seahorse, a baby shark (doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo) and others – and invite hospital donors to sponsor them.

He was more than willing to take part. So were donors. What started as a group of seven creatures quickly turned to nine, all quickly sponsored by community donors.

“I’ve made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. I can’t even count how many sketchbooks we have of drawings,” Post said of his fantastical fishy designs, many of which have been turned into small painting kits marketed for children under the brand name “Reefies.”

“A lot of the sculptures we have here on display never existed before except as drawings,” he said. “This is their first time coming to life as three-dimensional sculptures. That’s exciting to me.”

The process to create each of Post’s creatures is a laborious one, starting with a chicken-wire armature that is then covered with paper, then lots of tape, which is then sanded down to get just the right shape.

“Everything I sculpt, I try to have a lots of soft edges,” he said. “Nothing sharp. Even with the shark, I tried not to put sharp teeth in him. Everything’s soft and happy.”

If those “happy” fish make patients similarly happy, well, then, Post figures he’s done his job.

“There’s enough negative in the world,” Post said. “Hopefully, if we can bring some positive  and bring some smiles to some folks – that’s what this is all about. It really is.”

Covington artist Robert Post and St. Tammany Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees member Norma Richard discuss one of his works, a garfish-inspired piece, shortly after its installation at St. Tammany Parish Hospital. (Photo by Timothy San Fillippo, MA / STHS)

‘He turned out better than I think I thought he would,’ Covington artist Robert Post said of his octopus sculpture. ‘He gave me the most headaches; I spent the most time on him. The entire thing was finished probably about seven times – literally completely finished – and started over again.’ (Photo provided by Robert Post)

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