A local artist unveiled a sculpture at a local hospital this week, and she hopes her work will serve as a message of hope and inspiration. NY1’s Matt McClure filed a report.

For artist Robin Antar, the marble sculpture seen above is more than a piece of art. It is a symbol of her son, David's, life. He died in 2013 at the age of 26.

“He was the love of your life,” Antar said. “He was funny, humorous.”

David struggled with mental illness and received treatment at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks when he was a child. The facility treats patients with mental and behavioral health issues.

Antar's latest work is called "David's Knot in Flames."

“The sculpture is a knot because he had a very hard life. And the knot breaks open into an eternal flame,” Antar said. 

She added that part of the message the sculpture conveys is, “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

“This is a place that's available to everyone,” said Mitchell Shuwall, the Executive Director at the North Shore LIJ-affiliated hospital. “It's a shared place of serenity, a place for wellness and reflection, for hope and for healing.”

Antar said when she started carving the 1,500 pound slab of Turkish marble, she did not yet have a place to display her sculpture. But it wasn't long before the pieces started to fall into place.

She said Hillside popped into her head because of the treatment David had received there.

“It all just worked out,” Antar added. “When I approached them with the sculpture, they go, ‘Yeah, we were looking for a sculpture! Great!’”

The open space where the sculpture now stands used to be home to an inpatient cottage built in the 1940s, a facility staff referred to as "outmoded."

“There were several of those that were torn down, and now we have a beautiful new inpatient facility,” said John Kane, the Senior Vice President for Behavioral Health at North Shore LIJ. “And so, this really represents the transformation of the campus.”

Hospital staff like Brendan Foley, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in college,are also hoping to transform public misconceptions about mental illness.

“I think people understand when you say you have high blood pressure much easier than when you say you have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Those have become scary words,” said Foley, who now counsels patients as a peer advocate at Zucker. He said he hopes to fight the stigma by talking about his own struggle with mental illness.

As for Antar, she said she hopes her sculpture continues to stand as an inspiration for generations to come.