newsobserver.com projects - Director immortalized on patients' dimes - Comments

Re: Director immortalized on patients' dimes

mickiep — Fri, 30 May 2008 10:56:23 -0400

I thought it was Marlo Thomas from "That Girl". What a pathetic waste of vending machine nickles........and oil paint. The canvas wasn't the only thing stretched....

Re: Director immortalized on patients' dimes

FFC1304 — Fri, 30 May 2008 10:17:26 -0400

Democrackkks L O V E to see themselves immortalized, just like they L O V E
$10 per gallon gasoline! THANK a democrat!

Re: Director immortalized on patients' dimes

j1c2kp — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:21:20 -0400

Dress her in black and she could be Elvira.

Re: Director immortalized on patients' dimes

Isaac136 — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:29:04 -0400

It is a tad creepy, ain't it? And the idea that the subject of the painting, the danged director of a mental institution wanted it to be put up on display is kind of creepy, too.

Re: Director immortalized on patients' dimes

GrayJ — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:39:05 -0400

She could have at least got a painting that did not look so creepy.

Re: Director immortalized on patients' dimes

j1c2kp — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:09:27 -0400

What was she thinking? Do people really need a painting of a hospital director? Maybe when the hospital actually has patients she could walk the halls meeting and greeting, that way they would know what she really looks like.

Director immortalized on patients' dimes

bniolet — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:18:49 -0400

Despite budget cuts and cost overruns at a state mental hospital in Butner, hospital Director Patsy Christian found money to have her portrait made.

The oil painting was done by a subordinate and paid for with $250 that was intended to benefit patients, Michael Biesecker reports.

Christian ordered the portrait for delivery shortly before the planned November 2007 opening of the hospital, which is intended as the centerpiece of an ambitious reform. But a fire, concerns over design flaws that endanger patient safety and the failure to hire enough qualified staff have kept Central Regional empty.

The portrait was paid for using the money collected from vending machines at John Umstead Hospital in Butner. State law says the money from vending machines should be used for recreational activities for patients. Christian, 60, oversees Umstead and Dix, which are scheduled to be closed next month.

Christian, whose annual salary is $119,759, declined requests for an interview.

Calls to the artist, J. Lee Harris, a nurse supervisor at Umstead were not returned.

In a statement attributed to Harris and released by the Department of Health and Human Services, the artist said the painting was a gift to the people of North Carolina and that the payment she received barely covered the cost of materials.

"Her unconventional beauty, her sense of humor and her blinding intelligence are engraved in my mind," Harris said of her boss. "I knew that with my skill and desire, I would create a painting to be enjoyed by many and become engaged with this historic moment."