Occasionally I google "Visual Ovation Photography" just to see what comes up. That we are alive and well in cyberspace still seems somewhat mysterious to this luddite, and I am always pleased when some entries are listed. But my greatest pleasure has been to see what consistently has been the first entry, a link to one of our website galleries entitled, "Transformation and Healing: The Northeast Lodge Mural."
So why is this so special? It is special because this gallery contains a collection of images of a mural ("Transformation and Healing") which was painted in 1986 by the residents of Northeast Lodge in San Francisco. Northeast Lodge was a residential treatment program for clients with chronic and severe mental illness. The Lodge provided safety, mental health treatment, support, and programs to help residents develop skills that they needed to reintegrate in the community.
As is often the case with such programs, Northeast Lodge was located in a rough part of San Francisco. It wasn't pretty. And so it was that the residents and staff decided to do something about it, and the idea of painting a mural on the front of the building was born. Working with an artist, whose name I unfortunately don't remember, the residents came up with a series of images that were meaningful to them. Over a period of months the mural was carefully painted.
In August, 1986, the mural was officially presented to the San Francisco community in a formal ceremony attended by many, including the Chief of the Mental Health Department at the time. It was a day of immense pride for both residents and staff. But it was particularly moving for the residents, people who had felt so disenfranchised from much of the community, who felt so hidden from view and forgotten, to be able to create such a beautiful and visible offering to the community and to have it received so warmly.
Unfortunately, the ending to this story is not happy. Over time, a victim of the yearly economic tsunamis that have devastated the mental health system in San Francisco, Northeast Lodge was closed. But even more sadly, at some point, it isn't clear exactly when or why, the mural was painted over. I was reminded of this again last week when I visited an office located just a block away from the old Northeast Lodge. The front of the building is still grey. I look at it and I still feel sad and angry.
Very early in my training as a psychologist, I was a student for a brief time at Northeast Lodge, and I had the good fortune to bear witness to the birth of the mural and its presentation to the community. I took photographs of the mural at the time of the dedication, and I gave them as a gift to the Northeast Lodge Community. When my work at the Lodge ended, I was touched when I was presented with an enlargement of one of the images. It is in my office, and I look at it now, as I do every day when I am on the computer.
So in reality, the mural is gone. But to my mind it lives on in the "virtual world" by way of the images on our website, the photographs that I took at the Mural dedication. I have not been able to find any record that any images of the Mural have been published previously either in book form or on the web. To my knowledge, our website provides the only public record of this artistic gift to the community.
I actually have no idea why the "Transformation and Healing" gallery happens to be the first link that comes up when Visual Ovation Photography is googled. Other galleries have had many more visitors. But the mystery of it makes me happy. It is a lesson for me about the power of photography and technology. I am delighted that by virtue of technology that wasn't even dreamed of when the mural was painted, we can resurrect what has been so carelessly destroyed. Most of all, I am delighted that with my images, I can continue to honor the residents of Northeast Lodge and the mural they created with so much dedication and care. They, their gift, and their journeys towards transformation and healing, are not forgotten.
To see the rest of the Mural, please visit our website and the gallery, "Transformation and Healing: The Northeast Lodge Mural."
Stephanie
