20″x16″ mixed media on paper

Today I painted during a breast cancer luncheon at Baylor Hospital in Dallas,TX

The theme of the last luncheon was “fight against cancer”, so I was tasked with what that might LOOK like. If you would like a behind the scenes of how I decide what to paint, keep reading…

My 7th grade daughter was doing homework last night and she had to write a 15 line poem. 8 lines in, she stalled. “I should look at my free write” she said. Free write! That was what I needed to do.

What does fight against cancer look like? Hmmmm. Well I know what not fighting would be: defining yourself as a disease. Becoming isolated. Stop being who you are and start being a person with cancer. Dying. So would would fighting it look like? Radiation. Chemo. Low sugar diet. Being present. LIVING. What does fighting look like? What does cancer look like?

Fighting is research, study. Microscope? Books?

Fighting is running race foe a cure together!

Doctors, nurses. Having faith.

What about being literal-

Breast cancer cells look a bit like a blob, if I were creative, the boogie man. That didn’t work for me. What about genes, could I play with that? Cancer seems evil, what about the dragon being an archetypal symbol for evil?

Fighting: guns. No too scary. Swords? Maybe…Karate, or boxing – kick boxing!

And so I started to find an image I could play with.

And it is PINK is breast cancer’s color so I knew I would use that.