Charlene Ewen is the artist on the Junior League’s mural project for Lee Cancer Center at Lee Memorial Hospital.

When League members came to Charlene to ask her to work with them to create a mural she was excited about the opportunity to express herself artistically as a way to help those fighting cancer. She envisioned giving patients a brief moment of relief as they gaze at the mural, visible through the plate glass windows of Lee Memorial Hospital.

Although fighting cancer, Charlene continued to paint through her illness, always trying to be positive with others she met during her treatments. After almost two months of treatment Charlene was given a clean bill of health. With the help of family and fiends she continued to push forward each day gaining strength and getting back to her old self, but a “self’ with a new understanding and empathy toward women who were fighting cancer and facing the bleakness of treatments. Her love of color and texture and her specialty of incorporating animals indigenous to our environment into her work are all obvious in the colorful mural.