Wherever she goes, Ferrell Campbell makes her world more beautiful. She’s sewn since the 6th grade. A stroll past a bakery led to classes in cake decorating. More recently, Campbell mastered scherenschnitte, the Swiss-German art of intricate paper cutting. And today, sales of her oil paintings and flowery French handbags are steady.

Campbell’s natural aestheticism has, on occasion, spilled into her work as a psychiatric nurse. To wit: What began as nurturing her patients’ (and colleagues’) artistic endeavors led to establishing a small gallery on Meyer 4.

This time, she’s the driving force behind a larger, museum-quality space in the once-dreary Meyer lobby. “I wanted patients and their families to feel better right when they come in,” says Campbell, 69. “Everyone deserves a nice place to heal.”

Like the careful, steady lines of her paper-cut artwork, Campbell’s unlikely oasis took form with great patience. She wrote polite letters to get the lobby’s chairs reupholstered and the traffic-worn carpet replaced. She convinced her department to fund the gallery, and then placed her unit’s artwork in the hands of the hospital’s interior designer. Campbell handpicked the matting and molding that best showcased the 11 pieces the designer selected.

The result is exactly what she’d envisioned—a peaceful place, complete with fresh potted plants, that inspires healing and contemplation. On the far left, the pastel crayon “Spark of Life” features concentrated yellows, oranges and magentas that burst forth into surrounding blue, maroon and gray strokes. “From this beautiful little flame,” says Campbell, “anything is possible.”

Toward the center, Campbell’s own “Golden Dove” expresses hope among the chaos of 9/11. A perfect dove, cut from gold paper she found in Budapest, flies high above purple and yellow flames and debris.

Down the row, yellow and blue pinwheels dance with life and drama on black paper. Next to it, in charcoal, the thought bubble of a melancholy soul reveals her bipolar tendencies—bright swirls of mania contrast with dark clouds of depression.

On the far right, a dedication plaque engraved with a Pablo Picasso quote sums it all up: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

-From Hopkins Nurse, Spring 2006

PHOTO: Ferrell Campbell brings her artistic nature to her work as a psychiatric nurse. The new art gallery in the Meyer lobby is one such influence.