Fla. doc promotes healing through artwork
Physician focuses on helping local artists and lifting patients’ spirits
JUPITER, Fla. – During his fellowship in pain management at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Jeff Cara discovered the importance of beauty in healing.
With its emphasis on soothing art and architecture, the nonprofit academic medical center offers inspiration and encouragement to patients undergoing treatment, said Cara, a Jupiter physician who specializes in interventional pain management and physiatry.
Two years later, Cara has begun replicating that environment in his office.
Cara has turned his office into an art gallery in an effort to lift his patients’ spirits and enhance their care experience.
He also wanted to help local artists who were struggling to get their work displayed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“During the pandemic, artists needed a way to share their work,” Cara said. “So many galleries closed, and shows were canceled. We thought it was a perfect collaboration.”
Since April, Cara has exhibited a dozen paintings by Henriett “Anri” Michel, a Palm Beach Gardens artist who works primarily in acrylic on canvas and sculpture.
Michel, a former art student in her native Hungary, jumped at the opportunity to exhibit her work.
Her paintings, which she describes as “big and bold,” also are for sale.
“I paint abstracts,” said Michel, whose work has been displayed in restaurants, in furniture stores and on college campuses. “It’s all very colorful. It’s a lot of movement. I love painting big paintings, so I really have to do a lot of arm movement. I feel like I’m part of the art, and that’s satisfying for me.”
Her work is exhibited throughout Cara’s office, and it’s made a big impression on patients, many of whom are undergoing treatment for chronic pain, Cara said.
“We thought that patients needed color and optimism,” he said. “We wanted it to feel more like a home or a gallery than a doctor’s office. The patients love it. They ask if they can walk around the office to look. It beats just sitting in a waiting room.”
Cara said he’s received inquiries about purchasing Michel’s artwork, which she delivered to Cara’s office in a U-Haul this spring.
Though none of the paintings has sold, Cara is confident that will change once he opens his office fulltime to patients.
“Once we’re finally back to normal, there will be a lot more traffic in the office,” Cara said.
Michel is grateful to Cara for providing the opportunity to display her work, and she hopes more will come in the future. In the meantime, she is continuing to build a client base through her website.
“I’m slowly getting there,” she said. “I don’t have good connections yet. But I’m working with a lot more customers. People find me.”