Artwork

Original Artwork

In addition to my research and scholarship and performance activity, I am also an active artist, working primarily in acrylics, watercolors, pastels, and oils, graphite, and crafts/wearable art. Below are images of some of my recent pieces:

Completed July 9, 2011: “Vicious Cycle” Acrylic on Canvas

"Vicious Cycle", 2011 acrylic on canvas

This is the fourth painting in a series I am working on based on my recent diagnosis and ongoing treatment of breast cancer. This piece is about communication, and the lack of communication, about the disease. The background is pink – the chosen color of breast cancer awareness- and it’s in the background because we are all vaguely aware, somewhere in the background of our daily lives as women, that breast cancer is “out there”, but that’s rarely a conscious awareness, until we, ourselves, are diagnosed. The three figures represent a general lack of communication on the matter between women of every age and every race. We don’t want to hear about it, we don’t want to see it, when we are not afflicted; when we are, we don’t always talk about it, either because we are embarrassed, or we think somehow we did this to ourselves, or it’s private, our own problem and no one else’s, or we don’t think anyone will care; and more importantly, because society has trained us that unless we are young and beautiful, or wealthy and powerful, our voices don’t make a difference; as patients, we aren’t supposed to speak up on our own behalf or to ask questions; as workers, we are supposed to soldier on as though nothing happened to us or to take time off until we can: we are effectively gagged – which is silly, because we are also so visible once we have begun treatments. Around the outside and framing each figure are blue lines – these represent the men in our lives, how they are effectively marginalized in the discussion because of their gender – too often, either they don’t take part in the conversation because they don’t feel it is their place, because they aren’t going through it themselves, because they don’t know what to say, or because it doesn’t affect them; but they are still there, still on the perimeters as we grapple with how to begin this conversation, and indeed, whether to begin it at all, with one another. I think we should. I think we have a responsibility to speak out about our experiences with cancer, and that everyone should have a say in it – both the people with the disease, the people who might one day have it, and the people who love them.