How volunteer artists are brightening Long Island kids' hospital stays 

On a Saturday afternoon, cartoonists, animators and illustrators arrive at St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside, Queens on a mission. The artists, members of the New York City-based Ink Well Kids Foundation, divide into two groups with 20 children each and start drawing cartoon characters by request. It isn't long before a child's pick stumps volunteer Adrian Sinnott, who's asked to draw My Little Pony villain, Queen Chrysalis.

Sinnott, of Huntington Station, Googles the villain on his phone and draws it for the child who watches as the animated character comes to life on the page in front of her eyes.

Before the day is over, children can be heard saying, "This is the best day of my life," and asking the artists, "When are you coming back?"

The not-for-profit organization Ink Well Kids hosts free art group sessions led by volunteer illustrators for children facing severe illness, homelessness or are in foster care. The group plans to return to St. Mary’s, drawing for many of the same children, every few months, as they have for the past 20 years. When Ink Well Kids returns, it will bring SpongeBob SquarePants, Disney princesses and video game villains — or at least bring the artists that can draw them to life.

"When you work as a cartoonist or animator, you work on a project. They don’t necessarily have time to say, ‘What a wonderful job.’ You don’t get that pat on the back as often as you should," says Sinnott, an adjunct assistant professor at Farmingdale State College who has illustrated children’s books and worked in advertising. "That’s one of the things with the kids, seeing the reaction."

Tim Savage, a Queens Village resident who teaches watercolor painting and drawing with Great Neck Community Education and has volunteered with Ink Well for 15 years, says these visits are part of his life. "The kids light up when you create something fun and beautiful for them," he says. "It’s a great feeling."

CREATING INK WELL

Ink Well Kids executive director Elizabeth Winter knows the pleasure of making art, and how it can help during stressful times. She had cancer as a child and remembers how creativity helped her through tough times.

"One of the things that comforted me a lot when I was in the hospital or feeling lonesome was people doing creative activities with me," she says. "When I began my career in animation at MTV’s 'Beavis and Butt-Head,' I started working with the best artists in the world. After a few years in the industry, I thought 'Why don’t we take these artists out of the office and connect them directly with kids dealing with severe illnesses or home life challenges like foster care?' ”

Winter founded the Ink Well Kids Foundation in 2005 and now runs events in the New York metro area and Los Angeles, attracting nearly 100 volunteer artists and a core of around 40, including Sinnott and artists Ray Alma, of Great Neck, and Marty Macaluso, of Hauppauge.

About once a month, Ink Well Kids artists go to places such as St. Mary’s, Manhattan's Red Door Community, Bellevue Hospital and more. They also have worked with youth from Sunrise Day Camp in Wyandanch, which supports children with cancer and their families.

"The idea is these children get the thrill of drawing together with the artists behind their favorite animated films, TV shows, illustrated books, or comics," Winter says. "The whole idea is to get them as involved and engaged as possible."

She says artists and children collaborate to draw favorite characters or "create entirely new ones from the kids’ imagination." An artist, for instance, will draw a car and then help a child draw a cat in it, draw one shoe before a child draws another or draw outlines that children color in.

"You want that tangible connection with the kids," says Sinnott. "We draw whatever they want." Sinnott adds optimism is required in his profession, where artificial intelligence makes it tougher to make a living. Positive energy is pretty much par for the course and part of the visit.

"It’s more difficult than it was 20 years ago," Sinnott explains. "Cartoonists generally have an upbeat outlook. They need to for the happiness to come through in their work."

Ink Well Kids has had artists who for a living draw SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dora the Explorer, Beavis and Butt-Head and Popeye, or illustrate for The New Yorker and "Sesame Street." "Everybody’s expected to be able to wing it and draw what the kids want," Sinnott adds.

CONNECTING THROUGH ART 

At St. Mary’s, where some children can’t hold pens or pencils, artists take requests, drawing characters and caricatures. "As the child is able, we try to draw with them," Winter says. "If they’re physically not able to draw with us, we do caricatures of them or draw whatever character they request."

Macaluso draws caricatures, which Winter says bring "a lot of smiles" to faces. Disney characters are in demand, along with those from video games and animation. "It’s drawing," Sinnott says, "but it stimulates the kids and takes their mind off what they’re going through."

The group is currently doing a stop-motion series, designing original characters with children and then making brief videos, at New Alternatives for Children, a Manhattan-based center for adopted children or those in foster care with special medical needs.

And artists have done sessions with themes around holidays, such as decorating Halloween masks and making Valentine’s Day characters, or holiday cards for children stuck in hospital rooms over the holidays.

They also leave behind art sets including colored pencils and sketchbooks. "They learn new skills," Winter explains. Then we give them their own art kits so they can keep creating on their own."

Blick Arts sponsors the kits through a partnership that illustrator, Peter de Séve, who grew up in Great Neck, arranged. Artists also leave behind artwork that can brighten up much more than the day. "All the art we make at the events, the children keep," Winter says.

They often use that art to decorate what she says can "sometimes be plain and sterile feeling hospital rooms," and then look at that art to remember the visit and "continue to feel that joy."

Although the visits are about using art to improve moods, they also are about connection between children, artists and the characters they create.

"Everyone involved with this does it because they want to help. It’s a group of kind, gifted people who don’t ask for anything," Sinnott says. "We do it to make the kids happy and bring joy into their life, but you do get something back from them."