Evidence-based Design. What does it really mean?

What does it mean when someone claims to be Evidence-based Design Certified?

I’m a super fan of the Center for Health Design’s internationally recognized EDAC (evidence-based design accreditation and certification) program.

Why? The program is arduous and legitimate and it awards a credential to “individuals who demonstrate an understanding of how to apply an evidence-based process to the design and construction of all settings that contribute to health, safety and wellbeing including measuring and reporting results.” (healthdesign.org)

Who are the people who go for this certification?

Architects, Designers, Healthcare Executives, Healthcare Providers, Academics, Engineering and Construction Professionals, Product Manufactures, and artists like me who REALLY CARE about designing—using methodology rooted in medical research for the health, healing, and happiness of others.

I got really interested in the subject after seeing lots of art and art experts claim that paintings with dripping blood and badly deformed items and unhealthy looking human figures and shocking colors and compositions were okay to promote as art for health and healing. It wasn’t okay with me, so I looked for a program that would teach/influence/inspire me to create art for the health, safety, and wellbeing of others.

Here’s an Evidence-based Art video I created as a little promotion. The painting is called Oh, Baby Blue! I Love You!

Evidence-based Art Reflects Overcoming

The Power Of Love Over Hate

Some people insist evidence-based art should be 100 percent peaceful and serene and without any reflections of human challenges or difficulties. Based on my physical recovery experience (2 major operations within 30 days and over a year to recover), I politely disagree.

In the recovery process, people need lots of rest and relaxation—but we also need to feel hope. We need to feel encouraged to overcome our difficulties, even when that means complete restoration, only certain improvements, or sadly even acceptance.

One way to see this overcoming in art is to see a challenge or negativity in the background of a work and then have the foreground colors and images overcome it.

Here’s another video clip with a painting that does just that.

Below the video you can read the—not so peaceful and serene—actual story behind this evidence-based work called The Power Of Love Over Hate.

Here’s the story behind this evidence-based work:

I got trained to paint when I was only 7/8 years old. Today when I paint, I still go to that childlike, very vulnerable, and authentic part of my being and channel my art outwards. I live a happy, minimalist lifestyle, so most of the time when creating florals, I paint lovely art for the health and healing of others; however, on the rare occasion, the negativity of our world invades and can be seen inside my work.

When I began this painting, I was invaded by a worker doing a minor repair in my home/studio who started talking radical politics and would just not shut up. In his many words I kept hearing this message: I hate this group. I hate that group. Did you know this racial group is to blame for this? Did you know that cultural group is to blame for that? You need to support my political guy. If you don’t support my political guy, there is something wrong with you. Are you my enemy? Are you one of us?

As I laid the background stems for this painting, I was still processing how negative and dangerous this seemingly everyday American citizen was, and it inadvertently came out in the overly dark blue stem color I selected and in the over-intensity of my strokes.

Loving and hating others are human choices, and as I continued to work on the canvas, I kept choosing colors and images that overpowered the negativity of the stems and reflected the beauty and THE POWER OF LOVE OVER HATE.

Let's Relax With Evidence-based Art

Take a moment. Take a break. Enjoy a little relaxation with a one minute video with evidence-based art. No sales. No hype. It was created just for you! Evidence-based art uses medical studies in the design process.

The painting in this video was created using Evidence-based Design research. Multiple credible studies now show connections between certain types of art and positive health outcomes.

Wishing you the very best!

Dorothea Sandra, BA, EDAC

New Joy! Joy! Floral Happiness by Dorothea Sandra

People often call me a painter of HOPE. They tell me all the time how happy my floral art makes them feel.

I was the July/August 2021 featured artist at the Thunder Bay Arts Council Gallery in Alpena, Michigan. (By the way, this is a lovely gallery with many talented local artists.) During this time, these florals just flew out the gallery’s two big display windows—to Michiganders..to people from New England…Arizona…California—sometimes 5 at time.

What’s the secret?

I strive for happiness—not beauty—when painting this type of evidence-based art. Of course, the painting needs to be beautiful, but more than this, each work must create in its viewers/owners a sense of being loved or liked or made to feel really happy. The art has to GIVE MORE THAN ART, and it needs to keep giving and giving and giving.

The paintings in these videos were created using Evidence-based Design research. Multiple credible studies now show connections between certain types of art and positive health outcomes!