Art as advocacy

Regina Holliday paints

Local artist Regina Holliday paints murals. If you live in or commute through Northwest Washington, DC you are probable already familiar with her work. Holliday painted the large mural over the American City Diner. She also painted the mural in the alley on the wall surrounding the back entrance of Child’s Play.

According to Holliday, “murals are the museum of the public.” Only a small portion of our society take the time to go and visit Washington, DC’s many museums, but murals folks pass every day to work.

Like most artists, Holliday’s work is heavily influenced by her life experience. For those that know Holliday or her family, the face of her son is readily apparent in the mural in the Child’s Play parking lot.

Holliday’s latest murals are part of what she calls The Medical Advocacy Mural Project.
Holliday’s Medical Facts mural is finished and on permanent display at Pumpernickels Deli on Connecticut Avenue. Currently she is working on a new mural titled 73 cents. Both Holliday’s arresting recent works are born of tragedy and Holliday’s passion to protect others from suffering her and her family’s terrible fate. Holliday’s husband was diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer on March 27, 2009. Frederick Allen Holliday II, assistant professor of literature and performing arts at American University, died of the disease on June 17, 2009.

73 Cents, the latest in the Medical Advocay Mural Project

As a couple, the Hollidays worked five jobs for years and were unable to afford health insurance for their family of four. In a twist of irony, Fred Holliday began his dream job as a professor (a job that included health insurance) just before he was diagnosed with cancer. Regina Holliday believes that if they had had health insurance and regular medical care earlier her husband’s cancer would have been diagnosed before it grew to stage four.

Holliday points out that the doctor is standing in medical waste

Even with the excellent health insurance provided by the university, the Hollidays found the health care system deficient. Regina stated that in her experience basic standards of cleanliness mandated in child care facilities and taught to all minimum wage child care providers were often not followed by hospital workers. Holliday incorporates her outrage at the medical establishment in her art. In 73 cents, one doctor is tied in ropes as she stands in medical waste

Holliday explains that health care in our country can be equated with an abusive relationship. Abused spouses and children often fight to protect their abusers rather than work to get out of the abusive relationship. Citizens of this country are so used to being taking advantage or when seeking health care that they no longer recognize the abuse.

73 cents and The Medical Advocacy Mural Project are designed to spark controversy and debate. Holliday says with her murals and other efforts she hopes “to change the ‘face’ of health care.”

You can find Holliday working on her latest mural 73 cents at 5001 Connecticut Avenue opposite the CVS. For more information visit Regina Holliday’s Medical Advocacy Blog  at http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/

For a tribute to Dr. Holliday see http://www.american.edu/cas/news/literature-holliday-090702