Turning grief to action, O’Hara family creates ‘Positive Painting Project’ to spread messages of hope
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Local projects to promote mental health awareness and support the arts are spreading hope, one canvas at a time.
The Positive Painting Project and The Katie Whysong Scholarship for the Arts were created this year by Alisa and Todd Whysong of O’Hara, in honor of their daughter, Katie.
Katie died by suicide March 10, two weeks after her 15th birthday.
A freshman at Fox Chapel Area High School, she was an avid art student who struggled with depression.
“She was diagnosed with depression in the seventh grade,” said Alisa Whysong, 51, Katie’s stepmother. “She had lots of support — programs, medications and therapists. We thought, if it happened to us, how many other families are out there struggling?”
Todd Whysong, 48, said that when his daughter was attending Dorseyville Middle School, she expressed an interest in having art with positive messages. He and his wife started the Positive Painting Project to carry Katie’s interests forward.
The goal of the project, as they describe it on the website, is “creating canvases painted and printed with positive messages. These would be installed in the middle school restrooms to encourage and support students — to remind them that help is available and that they are loved no matter what.”
The first canvases were created at Second Harvest Thrift Store in Sharpsburg in May when they hosted an inaugural painting event to kick off the project.
The project invites people of all ages and any art level to paint canvases that will be installed as art in local schools and various communities.
The six messages of hope used are “You Matter,” “It’s OK to not Be OK,” “Never Ever Give Up,” “Hold on to Hope,” “No Feeling Is Final” and “You Are Not Alone.”
“Katie was passionate about helping others who struggled with mental health. She was a gifted artist and wanted to create something beautiful that would encourage and inspire people,” the Whysongs wrote. “From that one idea, a movement is being born.”
When Katie was a student at Dorseyville, she asked the art teacher, Nanci Goldberg, about forming a project to paint positive messages on bathroom stall doors.
“She was a wonderful person with creativity radiating out of her,” Goldberg said. “She was especially good at drawing and painting.”
Goldberg taught Katie for three years. After Katie’s death, Goldberg compiled some of her school artwork and mailed it with a personalized note to the Whysongs.
“Katie was just one of those kids you remember,” Goldberg said.
The Whysongs said teens are helping to spread the project’s message on social media, specifically Instagram.
“We are grateful that The Positive Painting Project is spreading messages of hope and inspiration to our students,” said Bonnie Berzonski, Fox Chapel Area School District coordinator of communications. “We are proud to be a partner and to be connecting with our students through this special endeavor.”
Paris Wohlgemuth, 17, a Fox Chapel Area High School student, said she never met Katie at school but is happy to see the artwork displayed throughout the campus.
“I think they are beautiful canvases with bright colors and designs that really highlight positive messages,” Wohlgemuth said.
Wohlgemuth said she knows many students on campus who like to seek refuge in a school bathroom when feeling stressed.
“It’s nice to see encouraging words when you are down,” she said.
“This is our way of making some sense of senseless, senseless heartbreak and devastation,” Alisa Whysong said of creating two different ways to honor Katie’s life. “It was either this, or not getting out of bed.”
Goldberg and another Dorseyville Middle School art teacher, Mackenzie Seymore, helped to get the project underway, along with Etna Print Circus and Aspinwall Eye Care.
More than 100 canvases combined have been installed at Fox Chapel Area High School, Dorseyville Middle School and the Lauri Ann West Community Center in O’Hara.
“We’re doing this because we are like a community hub and we thought this message was so important to get out,” said Anthony Allison, executive director of the Lauri Ann West Community Center. “We want to impact the lives of other young kids in the area.”
Pine-Richland Area School District is the most recent district to sign up. Marietta College in Ohio has expressed interest in the project.
The Whysongs encourage participation from any school, business or organization.
“We’re honoring her memory. It’s bittersweet — as nice as these events are, we’d still love to have our Katie back,” Todd Whysong said. “It’s impossible to make sense out of a tragedy like this, but we’re trying. We’ll never stop trying to spread hope to those in need. I’m positive that’s what Katie would still be doing today.”
The Katie Whysong Art Scholarship was established to provide free art lessons/classes tuition for local art students in grades 5-8.
A $350 scholarship was awarded to a student attending Artissima Studio, an arts center in Indiana Township, and two more scholarships will be awarded in the spring.
Anyone can create a canvas, and all ages are encouraged.
“I feel fortunate to be able to keep Katie’s memory alive in such a positive way, and I’m going to love being out in the community and seeing one of these paintings,” Goldberg said.
The Whysongs are grateful to the strong support from residents in the Fox Chapel area. “They’ve been amazing from the very beginning,” Todd Whysong said.
For more information, go to paintpositive.org and kwscholarship.org.