PAMELA ORLANDO, RN

Emergency Department, The Valley Health System Ridgewood, NJ

Pamela Orlando lived with strength, courage and — as her family says — joyous laughter. At The Valley Hospital, where she worked for a dozen years, she won the DAISY Award, an international honor for extraordinary nurses. At Lincoln Tech, where she taught nursing, she was a beloved mentor. Orlando was a nurse from the time she was 24, Armida said, but her family called her Dr. Orlando. She was the go-to for medical advice for friends and family far and wide, the one who always seemed to have an answer for medical calamities that befell those around her.

ARTIST: MONICA TIULESCU is an Oakland based New York City raised artist and educator. The paintings explore fluctuations between disfiguration and figuration between layered fields and familiar beings.  The picture plane is amassed to create spatial amplification for the figures to oscillate and dialogue in tension with the viewer. The work is inspired by graffiti and urban street art culture. The dark contour is a critical aspect for linking the figures as a continuous text. The figures are positioned between realism and illustration. This is especially evident in the portraits. The bodies disfigure into lines and anchor the portraits into the painted field.