Carlie LaughlinWhat do you get when you mix a mountain of medical waste, a splash of imagination and a pinch of pure magic? At Kentucky Children’s Hospital, the answer is two cheerful narwhals, stitched from syringe caps, IV tubes and a whole lot of heart, swirling through an ocean where trash transforms into treasure.
The art piece, the result of collaboration of entities across the hospital, is a 4-foot by 4-foot collage that hangs just outside the pediatric inpatient unit on the fifth floor of the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital. In some ways, this piece is a sequel — the second in a series of whimsical, child-friendly art made entirely of plastic waste.
In the first collaborative piece, countless pounds of colorful plastic pieces such as syringe caps, medical vial tops and IV tubes were collected and repurposed into a unicorn named Unity “MoonPie” McSparkles. The nearly life-size creature hangs by the elevators, greeting patients and visitors. With thousands of pieces of plastic left over — and a new unit to decorate — the KCH community came together to create their newest comforters: a pair of narwhals and their undersea friends.
