Specialized optometrist Mark Abraham and consultant and architect Bridget Abraham commissioned Claudy Jongstra in 2020 to create a wool felt artwork that ties in with Abraham Eye Associates, their practice of ophthalmologists, opticians, and optometrists in the American city of Philadelphia. The space was deliberately designed as a kind of gallery with warm materials and colors where visitors feel at ease, in contrast to the impersonal and clean medical spaces of most eye specialist practices.
Abraham Eye Associates, now Aegis Eye Care, recently opened a new branch in Ellis Preserve, Newtown Square in Pennsylvania, for which Claudy Jongstra has again been asked to create a work of art. With her palette of warm tones and expressive and subtle brushstrokes, the artist painted an abstracted composition in an organic form based on a flock of starlings. As in many of her works, Jongstra responds to the environment and her works carry a message. She draws attention to the fact that bird numbers around Pennsylvania have declined significantly and the climate has deteriorated. She was also inspired by European starling populations forming flight patterns called 'murmurations' in response to danger due to the proximity of a predator. The artist draws a connection between healthy eyesight and the health of our ecosystems; we can sense the well-being of our environment through warning signs from other species. It resulted in an inviting work of art full of life, movement, and depth, to which your eyes are immediately drawn.
