Since May of 2022, kids at Oklahoma Children's Hospital OU Health have been working with the newest artists-in-residence – local, professional artists, Denise Duong and Gabriel Friedman. Meaningful experiences with art allow kids to engage with play, creativity and self-expression and to develop coping skills that lessen fear and anxiety.

Kids worked with art therapist, Brittany Dray, to design large puzzle pieces representing their stories. Duong and Friedman gathered the pieces and added their interpretation of the kids’ connected experiences to create a massive, wall-size mural, exhibit puzzle — the largest professional-kid collaboration puzzle in Oklahoma, we think. This final showpiece will become a permanent part of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, continuing to inspire and connect the experiences of kids for years to come.

These tabletop-sized puzzles based on the final design were gifted to children who participated. All proceeds support future art programs at Oklahoma Children's Hospital and long-time partner Art with a Heart, which provides art experiences to kids in cancer treatment (partner organization selected by Duong & Friedman).

The artists-in-residence program at Oklahoma Children's Hospital, established in 2019, helps the Child Life and Therapeutic Programs team to connect kids and families to community arts experiences and advances art therapy with a broader spectrum of expressive outlets.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Denise Duong is a Vietnamese American artist and muralist from Oklahoma City, who studied at the School of Arts Institute of Chicago and the University of Central Oklahoma. Growing up with an immigrant family in a city that cultivated individual’s imaginations helped feed the beast of curiosity. This created an intrigue of what was beyond boundaries, state lines, oceans, skies, and emotions which played and continues to play an integral part of her inspiration and creativity. The narrative works on canvas are created with acrylic paint, paper, watercolor and ink. When she’s not in her Oklahoma City studio painting, you can find her somewhere in the world drawing, water coloring, or painting on walls indoor and out. The allegory in her works are narrated through the interwoven figures and characters. Each little scene working with another. It’s the story within the story.

Gabriel Friedman is considered a myriad of titles. Artist, father, designer, builder, Okie, fixer, crafts person, gardener, explorer, photographer, organizer, teacher, naturalist, city dweller, skateboarder, and idea factory are a few that come to mind. He studied most available avenues of art at Classen SAS in high school, then attended The Art Institute of San Francisco, The Boston Art Institute, The School of the Arts Institute of Chicago, and University of Central Oklahoma. He worked as a freelance photographer, writer, artist, designer, magazine editor in California and Europe in the skateboard industry in the 2000s. He took a hiatus from most normal "art" for about 10 years to study wood craft, primitive skills, sustainable framing practices, nature skills, carpentry, blacksmithing, and many other skill based practices using the hands. Gabriel has recently felt the need to return to more traditional practices where he can find a space to combine all his life experiences and talents to contribute to building a healthier, more open minded, magical, and exciting community for his daughters and their generation to experience…