Life anew.

Spring is beginning. Crocuses are up, daffodils are cautiously considering opening their pods, and the violets have begun to unravel their spiraling leaves. My mother had her last radiation treatment today. 

After biopsy & diagnosis, surgery & recovery, twelve weeks of chemo and 7 weeks of radiation, she is done. In truth it was a rather anticlimactic end. The expectations of how cancer is lived is widely over-sensationalized. Which is not to say it is not a horrible, awful thing, just that it is not outwardly so. Cancer is quiet. The battle is a silent thing. And so is the healing and the enduring. It is slow and unexpected. 

There is a fierce protectiveness in watching doctors and surgeons look at someone you love as a sick person. Would they just see her at her as one of the millions? A number? A set of DNA and cells to be studied and treated? There is a need to make them understand that she is "mom", the one who teaches you that you bat better left-handed, the one who knows the mayo always goes on the baloney side of the sandwich, the one who convinces you that the green beans came from Grandma's garden so that you will eat them instead of just push them around the plate with your fork.

Her caretakers were kind, sincere, understanding. The path was long and had it's moments. She was brave and strong. Humor was an enduring armor, and stubborness when all else fails  is a mighty thing. As the spring unfolds and the sun grows stronger, things will get brighter. 

IF:: Layer

lay·er

noun \ˈlā-ər, ˈler\

one thickness, course, or fold laid or lying over or under another

I had so many ideas about layers and how I'd like to use this idea to make a painting, and I have a sketch of it, but I think I'd rather wait and take a bit more time for that one. So, instead I made a simple sketch of our friend Susan who was just visiting and has these amazing vibrant red dreads that are thick and layered, and she herself is a mutli-layered being.

(what the heck is "IF"? check it out at illustrationfriday!)

Holy Potato Day

A dear friend and roommate throws a major party for Hannukah every year-Latkepalooza. This year's event was a blast, got to see a ton of my favorite people as well as meet some new ones. There were blessings in Hebrew, lighting of beautiful candles and a hilarious reading of Lemony Snicket's The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story-which I highly recommend!

(images clickable to see more at the flickr page!)

 

Sunshine

We have been lucky enough to have a lot of sun over the past few weeks eventhough the temperatures are dropping and snow is just around the corner.

 *images are links to my flicker page-all photos taken on my shiny fabulous iPhone.

 

Pieces

sketch

finish

 

 I began this painting a little over a month ago, and it took me a while longer than usual to finish.

I have been noticing a barrage of illness, and unwellness in people—particularly women—close to me lately. Over the past few months there have been life-altering health diagnosese, divorces, a new baby, upheaval...It has been a parade of unravelling and redefining. While the painting began in response to the illness closest to me, as I painted it, it took on the lives and breaking down of women around me. As I painted it I began to see that it might not be a person breaking down into pieces, but rather coming together. The things in life that turn our world upside down bring us to our true selves by shaking out all the other stuff that doesn't matter and leaving us with the rest.