A Note from Cynthia de Lorenzi, co-author, Your 2021 What’s Next Journal — What a relief — 2021 has arrived. Not only am I thrilled to launch Your 2021 What’s Next Journal with my co-author Hope Katz Gibbs, but it’s a pleasure to begin the New Year featuring one of the heroines on the frontline of saving lives and confronting coronavirus: Caryn Iverson, the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) of Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, NM.
As you’ll learn through our interviews with Caryn in this month’s cover story, she shares adept insight into where we have been since the Pandemic’s onset and where we should expect to go as the virus continues to rage, almost out of control! Her thoughts on the first positive news that we now have a vaccine.
On a personal note: I have known Caryn and her husband Richard since I moved to Las Cruces six years ago. Avid art lovers and art collectors, they share this interest with me and it’s one of the many commonalities that cemented our friendship.
Bras and Boots of the Borderland: Before Caryn began her nursing leadership here in Las Cruces, she served as CNO in El Paso, TX. Together, we launched an event called “Bras and Boots of the Borderland!”
Artists created works of art on boots and bras that were auctioned off to the highest bidder. This successful endeavor raised more than $10,000 to benefit the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation.
The study of medicine is often referred to as an art. But art should also be referred to as medicine. Art can inspire us, bring us joy, hope, wonder and whimsy, and even an escape.
Caryn has now led an art curation program for the Memorial Medical Center, and I have welcomed the opportunity to serve as Art Curator. New Mexico and Las Cruces are mecca’s for artists from around the world! The colors and vistas of New Mexico inspire artists to share those visions in their work.
We launched the program in April of 2020 and are eagerly looking forward to expanding the program as the Pandemic begins to wane.
There is nothing more gratifying than seeing medical staff express their appreciation for the art we have brought to their work environment.
It touches my heart when the staff comes up to say thank you for making our place of work beautiful.
Truly, medicine is an art — and art is medicine!
Hope and I look forward to sharing our 2021 What’s Next Journal with all of you as we usher in each month of this new wonderful year. We all are optimistic and excited about what is on the horizon. We are thrilled to have you be part of our growing Inkadescent™ community.
If you have thoughts, ideas, and suggestions about projects and programs we should write about, be sure to let us know via email. Here’s to you! — Cynthia de Lorenzi, Cynthia.art