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TFAA on FOX 26 News

Foreign Artists Take Part in Program for Cancer-Stricken Children
Wednesday, 27 Aug 2008, 5:37 PM CDT

Medicine is known as "the healing arts." When you combine it with the visual arts, healing happens-- not just to the body, but the spirit, as well. That's the idea behind an innovative artistic approach to treatment, now happening at Texas Children's Cancer Center.

"Making a Mark" lets children, who also happen to be cancer patients, experience the joy of just being children, through art. Professional guest artists guide the young ones in an art project which culminates in an annual exhibition.

And this year, the Texas-French Alliance for the Arts added an international spin, inviting two professional artists from France.

Gerard Visser and Regine Gaud create art with children at a hospital in Lyon, France. For two weeks, they are here in Houston, collaborating with young "Madame and Monsieur Monets" at Texas Children's Cancer Center, on an art project entitled "Things That Fly." Its center-point is a mechanical chicken whose feathers are being designed by the kids, themselves.

"You can see that chicken?" A tiny Texas tot proudly displays the feather he's just colored with crayons. "Ooooh, Texas chicken! Yeah, it's very good!," an encouraging Regine replies.

A few feet away, Gerard urges on a grinning little girl, attaching her colorful creation to the whimsical chicken, fashioned of paper-mache'.

"You hit the spot!" he cheers, as she beams with pride.

What's being created at the hospital here will be combined with around 350 other works of art from children around the world, most of whom are also undergoing cancer treatment.

"The doctors treat the disease, and we treat their hearts and their emotions," says Mary Beth Staine of the Periwinkle Foundation.

The exhibition opens on September 14th at Texas Children's Hospital, where it will remain for a month before going on tour.

Last year's "Making the Mark" exhibition is currently on display in Japan.