Tag Archives: Art and Cancer

Breast Cancer: Treatment (I)

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Acrylic on paper (1994)

Size (not documented, work now in private collection)

Another in my series Breast Cancer: A Progress. This is what I wrote in 1994:

“Treatment for breast cancer is for many women a nightmare. They feel powerless, dependent on the good will and expertise of the medical profession. Surgery and radiotherapy are the methods used to eradicate the “primary” cancer (the breast lump itself). While undergoing both kinds of treatments, the woman is necessarily immobilized. Removal of the cancerous mass by the surgical knife is at least easily comprehensible; radiotherapy however is mysterious and frightening, for the woman must descend below ground level where the powerful and dangerous machines are kept in thick-walled vaults.

Sources/Acknowledgements:

Recumbent figure: Model/coffin of Tutankhamen, flanked by falcon and human-headed bird (Egyptian, 14th century BC)

Angel at the window, white curtain: Giotto (Italy, 14th century), “Vision of Anna”

Moth: Stephen Dalton, photograph of Lepidoptera (Spurge Hawk, sphinx) in Borne on the Wind: The Extraordinary World of Insects in Flight

Leopard fur: Robert Vavra, photograph in I Love Nature More

Goose emblem: Egyptian hieroglyph for fear

Stairs: David Hockney, preparatory Polaroid photographs for “Paper Pools” series”

One in Nine

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Acrylic on paper (1993)

In the early 1990s I created a series of eight paintings, exhibited in 1994 at the Art Noise Gallery in Kingston. Breast Cancer: A Progress was meant to follow in the tradition of the formal, symbol-laden compositions in sequence used by Christian and other cultures to inspire contemplation, to bring the soul of the viewer to a state of spiritual readiness for understanding. I was particularly inspired by Giotto’s commemoration of the events in the lives of Jesus Christ and Mary, his mother.

To view the full series of paintings, see my new page, Breast Cancer: A Progress (currently under construction). I apologize for the quality of the image; I am working from old slides and negatives of these works, as the originals were donated after the exhibit to the Canadian Cancer Society. My understanding is that they were given by the CCS to some of their major donors for their private collections (see CV page, Collections).

This painting is the first in the sequence, titled Breast Cancer: Incidence. The phrase “one in nine” encapsulated in 1990 for many women their fear of the rising incidence of breast cancer. See my new page Part II: 1990-2010 for an explanatory paragraph, including Sources and Acknowledgements, I wrote about this piece back in 1992.