The Sunnyvale Sun

Community

Murals at hospital illustrate patient care and farm history

Manuel Cruz, a self-trained muralist, has painted dozens of murals around the United States.

"My brain is like a computer,'' said Cruz, who "stores'' images in his head and paints mostly from memory.

Cruz recently completed two murals at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Santa Clara.

His first mural is on a 60-by-15-foot concrete wall outside the cafeteria. The style is trompe l'oeil ("fool the eye") and it illustrates a "window" that looks out onto a cherry orchard--which used to occupy the hospital site at the corner of Lawrence Expressway and Homestead Road.

The second mural is located on the hospital's second floor, outside the recently opened cardiology unit. Cruz painted the wall with what he terms "an impressionistic landscape abstract." It's a softly colored mountain scene, with a heart being cradled in two hands as its centerpiece.

"The heart surgeons, nurses and staff all had some input about what they'd like to see," said Cruz. "We decided on something that would bring people calm, perhaps take their mind off the serious medical issues they are facing.''

The inside mural has drawn rave reviews from staff.

"I think it is gorgeous,'' said Dr. Gennie Yee, a cardiologist and Sunnyvale resident. "I was one of the staff who gave Manuel input and he did indeed provide us with a beautiful, peaceful scene."

Dr. Art Lee, director of the Interventional Cardiology Program, said Cruz's mural "is a wonderful healing gift to this medical community."

Lee, a Cupertino resident, said he walks by the mural daily "and it fills me with a sense of peace that I believe it also gives our patients and their families."

--Michael Cronk