Foxford-based architect and visual artist Francis Lanuza has just completed and installed his first Irish commission as an emerging artist for his healing spaces work, entitled Healing Hills. He was commissioned by HSE Limerick, to produce from his studio a work of art for its Regina House community nursing facility in Kilrush, Co Clare. Twenty seven artists applied for the commission competition, and it was awarded to Francis. Previous to this he has worked on office space planning and design for Procter and Gamble, Brussels Innovation Centre, and as a design architect in Aidea, Philippines, for a variety of architectural projects.
This new commission consists of a series of 12 healing paintings for Regina House, a HSE-run facility. The paintings incorporate Francis's knowledge of colour, form, shapes, and healing to help people in palliative care. He has previously worked on a healing centre for a former minister for health in the Philippines, who is a medical doctor and passionate promoter of complementary and natural healing called Hilot – the Philippines' answer to the Ayurveda of India.
Using his architectural skills, the artist Lanuza has been able to create a work of art that fits and complements the space, enhancing an otherwise blank and dull space and transforming it into breathing space that uplifts both patients and staff. This was the overall objective of the artist, to not just create healing and visionary art but also healing spaces wherever his art is installed. So it is not just the paintings that are his work of art, the space transforms into a work of art as well - a marriage of art and architecture. The process of the conceptualizing the art was also collaborative, ensuring that the HSE and management were involved in creating the look of the art.
Previous to this, Lanuza had a solo exhibition of healing and visionary art in the Greenway Gallery, Westport, entitled Hilom Hiraya: Healing Imagination which was well received. He said: “Hilom Hiraya: Healing Imagination, the collection of visionary art I have completed and exhibited, has been inspired by work I have done with the healer shamans of the Shuar Indians of the Amazon. These medicine men are renowned for healing cancer, diabetes, and even HIV within their culture. Prior to this, I have mainly dabbled in abstract work as influenced by my architectural background. Thus, completing this completely different body of work has been a profound, healing, and life-changing experience.”
