Library to Showcase Child's Art in Summer Exhibit

The Glen Cove Public Library is continuing efforts to provide patrons with options this summer season. 

The library will be hosting an art exhibit entitled, Sickle Cell Anemia: A Child's Perspective through Art, in the community room and mezzanine gallery throughout July and August.

The show will feature about 28 pieces by 10-year-old artist Camille Lawrence Floyd, who was born with the blood disorder and several other medical maladies. She started painting at age 3.

"We've described Camille's work as abstract expressionism," her mother, Angela Lawrence Floyd, said. "She works in watercolor on paper and she works in various sizes. Some pieces are huge, some are smaller and she uses vivid colors. We'll be showcasing work she has completed from age three to age ten."

For Camille, painting has been a way for her to express her feelings, especially after surgeries and other medical treatments.

"It helps me when I'm feeling sick and helps me not feel scared," Camille said. "It helps me forget."

However, this is not her first show. She held her first exhibit at the Mocada Museum in Brooklyn in 2008 followed by one at the College of New Rochelle Rosa Parks Campus in Harlem in 2009.

In addition to painting, Camille said, she enjoys writing poetry and playing the piano. She wrote a song called "The Wa Wa Song" when she was 4. Her kindergarten teacher heard the melody to the song, and eventually added lyrics to it and called it "Winter Comes." Camille's entire kindergarten class later performed the piece.

Despite being oxygen bound because of a chronic lung disease — she carries oxygen to school and is checked every hour for her oxygen level —, Angela said, Camille does not view herself as being sick at all.

"Camille has beat all odds since birth," her father, Marvin Floyd, said.

"She was born at 22 weeks, weighing just two pounds, two ounces," Angela recalled. "They counted her as a child that was not going to survive. At age three, she developed hydrocephalus—water on the brain. Most children with that have developmental deficiencies. At that point, the doctor told us to stimulate her as much as possible. "

It was then that Camille started painting.

"Her godfather bought her an easel," Angela said, adding that physicians told her that Camille wasn't going to talk because she also had some bleeding on the left side of her brain. "She watched a lot of Barney and learned to mix colors. We did everything we could to stimulate her brain."

"Camille broke the mold on everything," Marvin added. "She's now a successful fourth grader, she's almost reading on a ninth grade level and she excels on the creative side. She surpassed all expectations."

A Tribute to Women Activists

In August, the library will also be showcasing, The Anniversary of Women's Suffrage, in its lobby. The exhibit is part of Library Director Antonia Petrash's collection. It will feature artifacts, buttons, banners, posters and books from the movement.

"Women's Suffrage is something I've always been interested in," Petrash said. "When looking through my old papers, I found an essay I had written in high school about it and I'm 66 years-old."

On Aug. 26, the library will also host a lecture about the movement called, Women's Suffrage a Stop on the Journey to Equality.

For more information, visit the its website.