Two UNMC health professionals show creative side

Evelyn Render-Katz has been with UNMC for nearly nine years, but she has been an artist all her life.

This month, the low vision occupational therapist at the Weigel Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation will team with Robert Wigton, M.D., assistant dean of special projects at the College of Medicine, for a dual show at the Connect Gallery at 3901 Leavenworth St.

While Render-Katz has been creating art “forever,” Dr. Wigton began painting only five years ago, after a class at the Joslyn Art Museum. The show, which runs through May, will feature 10 of Render-Katz’s abstract landscapes with 28 of Dr. Wigton’s more realistic landscapes.

The works on display by Render-Katz are inspired by her walks in the Swanson Arboretum near her home.

Movement, line, color and pattern — including fencing at the arboretum — are visible in her work.

“I like the juxtaposition of manmade objects and elements with the natural,” she said.

Render-Katz studied art as an undergraduate, but was inspired to become an occupational therapist by her sister, who has multiple sclerosis.

“One of the first ways she was affected was a vision loss,” Render-Katz said. “So she is the inspiration for my interest in low vision, but also in OT. I was about to turn 40 and I was at a point in my life where I was making a lot of changes. My sister said, ‘Evy, you’d be a good OT — you like people and you’re creative.'”

Although she “knew nothing about occupational therapy,” Render-Katz returned to college to become an OT.

Dr. Wigton, on the other hand, is a medical professional who became an artist. He credits his “very creative” mother, who also took up painting later in life, as his inspiration.

“She was a very good painter, and I always thought, ‘I could do that someday,'” he said.

Dr. Wigton has shown his work before, but he enjoys teaming with other UNMC artists.

“Since the announcement of this show has gone up, I’ve run into a large number of UNMC employees and faculty who are artists,” he said. “Maybe in the future, there could be a sort of organization or club.”

An opening reception will be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday at the Connect Gallery. The exhibit will be up throughout the month of May.