Tag Archives: Art and Disease

Breast Cancer: Research

Posted by npaul on

Acrylic on paper (1994)

Another in my series, Breast Cancer: A Progress. The last one, the one that looks (looked then) toward the future. I wrote about it two decades ago but do not have my notes at hand just now, so will update this post when I do.

I have fallen behind on my monthly posts, as writing poetry lately has been my direction rather than visual art. If I could, I would share my poems with you (many since January, it’s been a hard winter), but apparently even an obscure online appearance could disqualify anything I write from eventual publication. (Yes, a very very long shot to be published, I know; I have trouble appreciating the poems I do see published, perhaps a generational thing.) So, as long as I submit to journals, I cannot let on what I’ve been up to these past weeks.

One in Nine

Posted by npaul on

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.