Around Broadneck: Atlantis artist's mural helps soothe trauma, burn patients

It's hard to look at a painting by local artist and muralist Gayle Mangan Kassal and not smile.

Perhaps that's why the Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., has commissioned murals from Gayle three times. The Boston Medical Center called her twice to paint their walls with scenes that help, for a moment or two, brighten the lives of the ailing and healthy people who gaze upon them. The paintings are colorful, animated, yet intricately detailed murals that Gayle painstakingly researches and composes.

Listening to the 40-year-old Atlantis resident discuss the steps involved in painting every fish, flora and...