“Every. Single. One. Of us who has been with this disease is validated,

loved and to a certain extent, freed by this image.”

 In August 2017 when I posted in social media several of the images represented here, an artist-friend of mine responded with the above quote.  After 53 years of near-perfect health, in early 2017 I was informed I had hereditary breast cancer. When “the call” came in, I fumbled to press ‘record:’ “We have the results of your biopsy, honey, and unfortunately, we did find cancer in the results.”  From that moment, I was committed to transposing what was about to become the most harrowing experience of my life into art. I turned the camera on myself, but this time, onto a confounding new identity: breast cancer patient.  My body thus became an entirely different site of artistic research.  Many hours of audio-visual footage (and photographs) documenting the diagnoses, tests, treatments, post-surgeries and alternative modalities were acquired that year.  In addition, I did a series of performances for the camera in collaboration with photographer, Lisa Wigoda (Quincy, IL) during the months I was undergoing chemotherapy.

Orchard series: This series, in a small organic apple orchard during the bloom time in spring 2017, depicts both the orchard and myself in a process of transformation. Holes were dug for the planting of young trees that became a metaphor for the abyss of illness and at the same time, a promise of new life.

Cottonwood series: This series was created at the site of a large, half-alive cottonwood tree in a woodland near the Mississippi River. The tree had been struck by lightning and weathered the storm. I had just finished my last round of chemotherapy after a breast cancer diagnosis in early 2017. The photographs were shot just days before my body was forever altered by breast surgery. It was the last opportunity to make a work with my body as I had known and worked with it my entire life as an artist and woman.