For Karen Roberts the term “the healing arts” has double meaning.

She is a nurse practitioner who understands the art of caring for sick and dying patients, and she is an artist who understands the healing power of creativity.

Karen Roberts, left, a nurse practitioner, and Susan Andersen, a registered nurse, look over some of the items that will be displayed and auctioned to raise money for Ballard Community Center. The fund-raiser kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday at Back to the Garden, 619 N. Second St.

So it seems only natural that when she was trying to think of a way to showcase nurses in a different light that she came up with the idea for an art auction featuring paintings, quilts, drawings, mosaics, textiles and other works created by nurses.

“There is a critical nursing shortage is this country,” she said. “I think anytime nurses can be in the public eye in an unusual way, it helps people to see them in a more multidimensional manner.”

“Healing, Imagery and Form: The Art of Nurses” will be kicked off with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at Back to the Garden, 619 N. Second St. The works of 17 nurses will be displayed, and viewers can bid on the works in a silent auction that runs through March 1.

Fifty percent of the proceeds will go to the Ballard Community Center, which offers a preschool for ages 1-5 that targets lower-income families; an emergency food pantry; rent and utility assistance; commodity food distribution; medical prescription assistance; a children’s clothing pantry; and a school supplies program.

After expenses are covered, some of the money also will go to the Kansas State Nurses’ Assn. for scholarships.

Roberts will have two pieces in the auction: “Food Equals Love,” a mosaic of a waitress made from pieces of pink and aqua dinner plates, and “Married to the Job,” a mixed-media work depicting a wedding cake with a nurse on top.

“Some of my art, like the cake, deals with my feelings about nursing so it’s a quasi-political statement,” Roberts said.

Roberts’ visual artworks were included in a show by nurses in Indianapolis and her poetry will be featured in a coffee-table-style book on the art of nurses that is expected to be released this summer.

Susan Andersen, a registered nurse, will show a full-size quilt with an American flag motif and a framed appliququilt block using the “Bittersweet” pattern. Her interest in quilting was encouraged by her grandmother and aunt.

“For me, it’s a way of extending what I saw in my family,” she said, adding that quilts are functional and artistic and often serve as a means of socialization in rural settings.

Like Roberts, Kathryn Schartz, a nurse practitioner and co-owner of Back to the Garden, believes in the healing aspects of the visual arts. She will have a painted metal flower, designed for the yard or garden, in the show.

“I worked in pediatrics and I encouraged the patients to paint and draw and be creative because it helps them to get well faster,” she said.

Schartz, who was a nurse for 18 years, also hopes the show will smash any stereotypes of nurses.

“There’s a public image that nurses are rigid in style and have to do things a certain way,” she said. “But there’s an acceptance of others, a spirituality and a real depth to them.”

Other artists in the show are Carol Bloom, weaving; Karen Chambers, textile art; Ann Kuckelman Cobb, watercolor and collage; Cynthia Hornberger, hand-knitted art scarves; and Marlene Peterson, drawing.