Obert brings color to nursing home residents

MONTROSE — For Sandy Obert it’s ghosts, witches and pumpkins oh my!

Obert, a certified nurses assistant, uses her spare time as an artist to make her workplace, San Juan Living Center, a little more colorful. A self-proclaimed Halloween “nut,” she typically decorates for the Christmas season but decided to expand to other holidays this year.

“I have been a CNA going on 12 years now,” Obert said. “But I really like to add a little to my residents’ hallway if I have the time. I enjoy making decorations and hanging them up. I am in a cardboard phase right now.”

Obert drew various cardboard characters that her husband cut out and she then painted. She collects cardboard from leftover boxes from her work, and for larger pieces, her husband gathers refrigerator boxes.

“Halloween is my favorite holiday, but normally I would just decorate for Christmas,” she said. “The residents really enjoy it. I am always looking at Halloween decorations, but with the prices really going up, I started looking at stuff more closely. I thought to myself, ‘hey this stuff is kind of flimsy and I could make things better than I could buy.’”

Obert who was born and raised in Fort Morgan, moved with her family to California to test the waters but returned to Colorado finding coastal living too hot and crowded. Her sister in-law and family lived in Montrose so the Obert family relocated here five years ago.

“My husband’s sister is a teacher and one year we had the students decorate a large piece of butcher block paper and we wrapped it around the nurses’ station,” she said. “I used to do a lot of work with various papers. Last year I made a bunch of Christmas wreaths with Santa faces.”

Obert said she wishes she had a little more time to focus on her projects and feels her Halloween decorations aren’t her finest work.

“I knew I would be doing Christmas decorations but then I thought why am I not decorating for Halloween,” Obert said. “But my daughter thinks it’s all cute. I wish I would have more time to do some more detailing but it was kind of last minute.” Obert made pumpkins to put by the residents’ doors and witches hang in the corridors.

“Originally I wanted to be a cartoonist but things just did not work out that way for me,” she added. “I love cartoons. I figure nobody is too old to watch them.”

Obert first got into art though her mother, who owned a ceramic store. Her mother gave her her first paint set around the age of 5 and the creativity has not stopped. The true beneficiary of Obert’s art is her 4-year-old granddaughter.

Her impending granddaughter’s birth launched Obert into painting wood furniture. She spent three months decorating a crib with birds, butterflies and a heart wreath. She now paints other furniture, which she sells.

One of Obert’s all-time favorite projects was the restoration of a Volkswagon beetle. She repaired pitted paint and added a butterfly theme to the meringue yellow car.

“I have always loved to paint anything I could get my hands on,” she said. “To be honest I don’t have the patience to take art classes, but I learned a lot from my mom.”