Painter crafts his art

A retired specialist has reinvented himself in a colorful way.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- After a career in the healing arts, Dr. William Bunn now heals with art.
At age 74, Bunn is 31/2 years into his new field after specializing in internal medicine and cardiology.
One of the doctor's paintings will be featured in an art and health exhibit that opens Thursday at the Oakland Center for the Arts.
You might also see him walking around the Youngstown State University campus where he's an art student.
Art comes naturally, Bunn said during an interview at his Liberty Township home.
"When I retired, I thought this would be a fun thing to do," he said. "So I took some classes at YSU. My sister was an art professor [at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass.] and my daughter is a painter. Art is in the family."
So far, Dr. Bunn has produced about 10 paintings.
Part of exhibit: Along with several other health-care professionals, he's taking part in the Oakland's Art/Health Exhibit, sponsored by Forum Health/Western Reserve Care System and its Woman's Board. The exhibit, "Female Patterns in the Circle of Life," is designed to call attention to health problems that affect women, as well as prevention.
Dr. Bunn's painting on three canvases is a landscape surrounding depictions of a woman's breast in various stages of cancer.
"The sun and cloud [in the painting] symbolize the loss and restoration of hope," he said.
Bunn wants his artwork to remind women to have mammograms and get detection early. It also calls attention to inherited cancer cases.
Getting interested: Bunn explained his father used a newspaper feature to help spark his interest in art.
"The Vindicator ran a series called '48 Famous Paintings' every Sunday sometime in the 1940s," he recalled. "My father set up a reward fund if I could recognize them by artist and title. I became interested then."
He said that aspects of painting go beyond creativity and canvases.
"I like the healing effect of art," he said. "It's used as therapy for troubled people. That's how the [medical] theme arose."
Bunn's paintings aren't all health-related, though. His favorite is an oil-based landscape of field and mountains in Vermont.
He also said one of his works is on display out of state.
"I have a painting in Chicago. It's in my granddaughter's bedroom," he said, laughing.
Teaching, too: When he's not dabbling with oil colors, Dr. Bunn is teaching part time at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.
Dr. Bunn said he helps medical students learn what is too often overlooked in patient care.
"I teach medical students how to listen to patients," he said.
The doctor has his students critique each other's performances and communication.
X"Female Patterns in the Circle of Life" will also feature photographs of the human body to bring awareness to cervical cancer and osteoporosis. The show runs from Thursday through April 29. The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For tickets and other information, call (330) 533-1474 or the Oakland Center for the Arts at (330) 746-0404.