Spin

My 100th post discusses a media opportunity.

I

About a month ago, I was approached by someone with extensive media connections. We had a nice conversation about my developing art series: Breast Cancer, Female and Young.

Would I want a coveted chance at media exposure for the series?

For those new to my Substack publication, I am a breast cancer survivor and artist, whose aforementioned series depicts tasteful, nude female figures oil painted on canvas. These figures represent women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer on the younger side. The methodology for how I came to create this series can be found here.

The nudes will hopefully resonate with women who’ve been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer, as well as their loved ones. And I hope that Breast Cancer, Female and Young will educate people about how emotionally and physically devastating breast cancer is.

Word must get out there about this crucial art series. Media coverage is just what these paintings need. So I told my media contact the only thing I could.

I said “no.”

II

My contact envisioned “selling” the paintings to the press in the following way: the series would start with sadness, but my painting Unfinished Business (shown later in this essay) should exude joyful positivity as a finale to my series.

Breast cancer all tidied up. And someone trying to control how viewers perceive my art.

I found both rather distasteful.

My art series is deliberately non-linear, offering various depictions of the breast cancer experience in no particular order. I do not envision a beginning and an end because cancer is not tidy. For those like me who have survived cancer thus far, there may be a beginning, but often there is no end.

While we are grateful to be alive, we are never quite the same physically and emotionally after experiencing cancer. Collateral damage from treatment wreaks havoc on our bodies and spirits. And PTSD and other types of psychological damage do not give survivors the honeyed lives that some in the press enjoy showcasing.

And let’s never forget the people who die of metastatic breast cancer; for these individuals, there is no end to treatments and the suffering, even if they pass away, because their demise leaves loved ones forever grieving in death’s wake.

If I agreed to have my art showcased with the end point being joy, then my series loses authenticity and integrity. Breast Cancer, Female and Young has no beginning and end; instead it offers meaningful snapshots of life with breast cancer. I view this series as truthfully depicting those afflicted by this disease.

Of course, even if I created a million paintings, they could not capture the infinite spectrum of breast cancer.

If I allowed some well-meaning people in the media to spin my series as one that evolves from sadness to joy, I’d be feeding into the breast cancer rah rah bullshit.

So I said “no” to this offer.

I create art to encourage emotions in others, and I want viewers to come up with their own interpretations of the artwork. And I am happy to announce that two of the nudes I’ve been working so hard on – Unfinished Business and Falling – are now completed.

Here is Unfinished Business:

Unfinished Business, 24” x 20,” oil on canvas. The topic is sobering rather than joyful.

For this painting I did my noodling of final fine details. I reworked the figure’s hands a bit, as well as her orange shawl, making it drape more realistically to the viewer’s right. As you know, dear readers, I have a difficult time with creating fabric, but I did the best I could. And knowing this offers me great comfort, as a painting need not be perfect in order to convey meaning. And, on a global-change scale, I intensified the background colors to make the figure stand out a bit more.

For Falling, I focused on revising the figure’s hair, which originally was not full enough. Here’s how the original painting looked:

Here’s the revision:

And here’s the final product in its entirety:

Falling, 24” x 18,” oil on canvas

I decided to go a little wild with her hair, using purples, Indian Red, and a whole concoction of colors to give a fuller head of hair, which I also lengthened ever so slightly past the figure’s neck. I signed it, and wha la. Done.

I have two more figures that I’ll be working on and then I might be finished with this series. At least I think so. There is so much to convey and never enough space and time to say it.