Artist Gittes ’10 Donates 1,800 Paintings to NYC Hospital Staff

Olivia DrakeJuly 28, 20202min
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Los Angeles artist Michael Gittes wanted to show his appreciation for frontline health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic, so he created paintings for every single person working at Interfaith Medical Center in New York.
Los Angeles artist Michael Gittes ’10 wanted to show his appreciation for frontline health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic, so he created paintings for all employees working at Interfaith Medical Center in New York. (Image courtesy of NBC Nightly News)
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Gittes holds up a sampling of the “Strangers to No One” project.

On July 26, Los Angeles artist Michael Gittes ’10 was featured on NBC Nightly News in a “There’s Good News Tonight” segment.

For an entire month, Gittes worked on a project titled “Strangers to No One,” which involved painting 1,800 flowers. He donated the works to every employee at the Interfaith Medical Center in New York City, a nonprofit community hospital, to show his appreciation for frontline health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

“If you love somebody, you give them a flower,” Gittes said in the interview.

Donning a Wesleyan University sweatshirt on the show, Gittes demonstrated how he painted the flowers using a syringe as opposed to a paint brush.

“I … felt powerless and frustrated,” Gittes said. “I can’t paint one for everyone and everywhere, but I could paint one for everyone at one hospital.”