Weston Teruya’s mixed media drawings are each inspired by a space on the Highland campus. Teruya states, “These spaces exude a sense of calm, healing, and openness: a rooftop overlooking the city toward the Bay (From the rooftop across the skyline), the bench at the foot of the front lawn looking up to the historic wing (Breathing the tall green), and one of the two water fountains at the side of the historic wing (Among the many waters). Each of these three spaces then inspired other thematic references that helped to guide the compositions and elements within them: the buildings and healing body, the natural landscape and medicinal plants, and water and cleansing as a healing
element.”

Artist's Statement: Intersecting Paths is divided in two halves, each loosely mirroring the other. While the design is not meant to be exactly symmetrical, each side was designed to complement the other. During the process of building the drawing, I worked on alternating sides, letting developments on one side of the piece inform the layout of the other. The dual sides were inspired by the twin entrances at the front of the historic wing of the Highland Hospital, one for doctors, the other for patients. In the drawing, the sides are not intended to be assigned to either group, but to embrace the interrelationship between the two.

The primary design elements in the drawing are pulled from floor tiles at Highland Hospital, particularly the historic wing. Other parts of the piece are fragments from the historic façade, as well as other healing and protective cultural elements, including dzi beads, protective nazar, a candlebush plant, and tilework from the thermal baths in Gellert. As with the other drawings in this series, these other references have been incorporated to draw loose connections across history and cultural traditions around healing and a community’s protection of its members.