Bryan Andresen
Link to Bryan’s web presence: https://www.photozonegallery.com/bryan-andresen
Date of Interview: Sunday, July 21, 2019
Date of Broadcast: Wed. July 24, 2019
Script: Sandy Brown Jensen
Sound and Narration: Terry Way
Location: Sacred Heart Medical Center PRN Gallery and Sacred Heart University District
Exhibition Dates: RiverBend July 9--Sept. 5; University District July 2--Sept. 3
Hello, you’re listening to Viz City, KLCC’s Arts Review program. In continuing our exploration of places in the community where you can go to see art, this week we take you to two shows in the two PeaceHealth hospitals, RiverBend and University District, where retired physician Bryan Andresen has shows of his landscape photography. Bryan, why is important to you that your art is being shown in the hospitals?
"So for me it is exciting to have a hospital showing art work, particularly as a recently retired physician, having worked at Sacred Heart for almost thirty years. I find it a meaningful transition into my retirement to combine this emerging interest of mine with photography, taking pictures of landscapes, and offering that, not just to myself, but to others, in this case, other patients, other families of patients--and I know when I’m looking at that kind of a landscape, I feel that there is more going on in this world than my little photography self. There is something miraculous and wondrous about nature, about landscapes and about clouds, and for me, when I’ve had family members who are ill, I look to nature to help feel a sense that there is something beyond all of us."
When talking to Bryan about his photography, his enthusiasm is infectious. He tells one story of getting down on his belly on a snowy bridge to shoot down into a frozen creek. His photos reflect his passion for beauty, but always for him, it goes back to the healing power of art.
"I think that having art in a hospital, for me, is very important in that patients and families, particularly families--I think families are going to be looking at the art more than patients--but they are really going through a difficult time and having something that takes you beyond your own painful period and reminds you that there really is something larger on-going out there is very reassuring to me, and I hope it’s reassuring to patients and families."
Remember, you don’t have to have any reason to visit the hospitals other than a love of art.
Viz City is co-produced by Terry Way and Sandy Brown Jensen.
