“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.”

Thus begins T. S. Eliot’s “Burnt Norton,” the first of his famous Four Quartets, considered by some the greatest philosophical poem of the last century. Eliot’s main theme, time and timelessness, inspired another artistic epic to take shape last summer in a Fort Andross warehouse.

A 50-foot-long mural, in four 10-foot by 10-foot sections (separated by foot-wide natural maple), designed and painted by Professor Mark Wethli, Cassie Jones ’01, and Kyle Durrie ’01 depicts, in wild, bright hues, sweeping and twisting, the four seasons and the three artists’ interpretations of Eliot’s spiritual landscape poem. “Essentially abstract in nature, the imagery of each of the four panels draws from the central imagery of each of the four Eliot poems, a rose garden, the night sky, the coast of New England, and a river,” says Wethli.

“I became fascinated with the way murals, through their interaction with the community, establish a more direct link between artist and public,” comments Cassie Jones in her application for the Langbein Summer Research Fellowship that she received for the project. Durrie received a Surdna Summer Research Fellowship for her part in the project.

Commissioned by the new Mid Coast Hospital’s Healing Environment Committee, the mural will be hung in November in the entryway to the new Brunswick hospital with the aim of “creating a more positive and uplifting environment for patients, visitors, and medical staff,” Wethli explains. The connection between art and healing has gained much credence in recent years. Art seems to improve the moods of patients and their caregivers and in so doing, assist in the healing process.