‘Valley of Hope’: New Mural Brings California’s Landscapes—and a Community’s Touch—to Stanford Medicine Children’s Health

A red-tailed hawk watches over its nest. Parent and child animals emerge across a warm California landscape. Valley wildlife, rocky shoreline, and glowing sunset colors stretch around a second-floor corridor, transforming what was once a blank clinical space into a 90-foot work of art.

On Sept. 1, 2026, Stanford Medicine Children’s Health unveiled “Valley of Hope,” a new mural at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford created by Stanford Medicine Artist in Residence Ryan Anthony Martinez. The monthlong project became a community effort, with Stanford Medicine Children’s Health care team members and young patients adding their own touches to the mural.

Among them was 10-year-old heart transplant patient Michael Loktev, who helped paint part of the mural.

“It’s very exciting to be a part of this mural at the hospital where I received my heart transplant,” said Michael. “I love painting and seeing the creativity, and how everything comes together into one beautiful artwork.”

For Martinez, that participation reflects the motivation behind the project.

“It’s the whole purpose of why we are doing this mural—to inspire young children in the hospital who are going through some heavy things, to give them something to look forward to every day, brighten their days, make them smile,” Martinez said. “This really means the world to me.”

Bringing the California landscape inside

“Valley of Hope” draws inspiration from the ecosystem themes found throughout Packard Children’s. Each hospital floor is associated with a color and a California geographic ecosystem, with animals representing the different environments.

According to Antonia Dapena-Tretter, art curator at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, this is the biggest, hand-painted mural, and it features several of the hospital’s ambassador animals, originally selected with input from patients and families and vetted to ensure that they are native to California. The imagery represents all five hospital floors and ecosystems, exploring themes of migration and displacement.

“In many cases, the animals depicted are clearly parent and child pairings, which represents our patient demographics beautifully as both a pediatric and obstetric hospital,” said Dapena-Tretter.

Martinez adds that the color orange also became a unifying color throughout the work, creating warmth while connecting the mural visually with imagery found elsewhere in the hospital. For over six weeks he extended the painting around the corner near the hospital’s Main Pharmacy, bringing the finished mural to approximately 90 feet.

The location for the mural was chosen intentionally. Although staff members make up much of the corridor’s daily traffic, patients and families also pass through the space. “This hallway was completely blank and frequently used by staff,” said Dapena-Tretter. “The Pharmacy team expressed how sterile the space felt in comparison to other corridors. It needed to feel the Packard Children’s touch.” Now, the mural wraps around the long corridor, inviting people to slow down and discover details throughout the scene.

“There is so much to unpack,” Dapena-Tretter said. “Scanning the wall from top to bottom and left to right creates an almost meditative experience.”

From virtual reality to a hospital wall

Creating “Valley of Hope” also gave Martinez an opportunity to experiment with a new artistic tool: virtual reality.

For the first time in his work, Martinez used a virtual headset and its app to help transfer his approved digital design onto the hospital wall. Traditionally, he would have used a projector or plotted a grid—a process that could take hours.

“Wearing the headset was like having a projector in my eyes,” Martinez said.

The technology allowed him to keep the design within his field of vision as he moved along the wall and to scale the artwork using his hands. He said the process dramatically accelerated the initial drawing stage and is one he expects to use again for future mural projects. And since Martinez was working in a sensitive patient-care environment, he also used non-VOC paint selected to minimize strong odors and volatile organic compounds. With limited colors available in that paint type, he worked from a palette of 12 selected colors, mixing additional shades as needed with environmentally conscious acrylic paints.

Art as part of the healing environment

Stanford Medicine Children’s Health has incorporated art into the hospital environment for over 35 years. The art program dates to the opening of the West building in 1991 and expanded alongside the opening of the Main building in 2017. For Dapena-Tretter, hospital art is more than decoration—it can help soften an environment that may naturally cause anxiety for children and families.

“Because hospitals are spaces where people receive medical care, they are inherently scary,” she said. “Art in the space helps to calm our patients and families with soothing or even playful imagery. It can help create opportunities for young patients with care teams to discover details together, tell stories, and talk about what they see and feel.”

Leaving a mark

“Valley of Hope” belongs to more than its artist. A few days before the unveiling, hospital team members and patients had opportunities to contribute to the work, turning the mural’s creation into a shared experience.

“It gives us here at the hospital part ownership of the project,” Dapena-Tretter said. “We’ve seen Ryan working on this for weeks, and now to be included in the process, it’s really special.”

For Michael’s mother, Ludmila Lokteva, seeing her son contribute was especially meaningful.

“It’s wonderful for him to have this experience, to be a part of the hospital’s artwork,” Lokteva said. “Michael enjoys looking at the murals throughout the hospital because they make the environment feel brighter and happier.”

And now one of those works contains something of his own. “It definitely brightened his day, and will boost many more days to come, to know that every time he walks by the mural, he left his mark,” she said.

Martinez said painting alongside Michael and other members of the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health community became an important part of the artwork itself.

“It was really special,” Martinez said, “and will live on in this mural for everyone who sees it.”