Sometimes breast cancer invites us to look closely at our own bodies the way we might look at famous nudes. Creating visual art can be therapeutic, whether it involves photography or digital. Watercolors, sketches and collages could be empowering, too.
PUBLISHED June 13, 2018
Felicia Mitchell is a poet and writer who makes her home in southwestern Virginia, where she teaches at Emory & Henry College. She was diagnosed with Stage 2b HER2-positive breast cancer in 2010. Website: www.feliciamitchell.net
When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I found a book entitled, "Her Soul Beneath the Bone: Women's Poetry on Breast Cancer." Edited by Leatrice Lifshitz, it includes Deena Metzger's "I am no longer afraid," along with a photograph by Hella Hamid of Metzger with a tree tattoo across her scar. This photograph helped me to see how the visual arts can empower women dealing with a disfiguring disease.
Art, including poetry and the visual arts, helped me through my mother's diagnosis. While writing poetry is all well and good, and what I tend to focus on, art with provocative poses like Metzger's drew me into exploring the nude. My mother's experience with cancer thus inspired my first attempt to photograph my own naked breasts While I no longer have those images that I took with a polaroid camera, I do have the "art" I created with them: digitally manipulated images that turned breasts into landscapes like deserts or mountains.
Art, including poetry and the visual arts, helped me through my mother's diagnosis. While writing poetry is all well and good, and what I tend to focus on, art with provocative poses like Metzger's drew me into exploring the nude. My mother's experience with cancer thus inspired my first attempt to photograph my own naked breasts While I no longer have those images that I took with a polaroid camera, I do have the "art" I created with them: digitally manipulated images that turned breasts into landscapes like deserts or mountains.
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