progress and developing work
Below is the map that features all of the participating cities in this project. Updated bimonthly.
Project Progress
Workshops Held: 5
Pieces Created: 2
Online Interviews: 150
Community Partners: 15
In-Person Interviews: 11
People Supported: 290
Drawings Based on Digital Histiopathology Images
"Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells"
Ink, Pencil, Archival Paper
2' x 3'
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for about 10-15% of all breast cancers. The term triple-negative breast cancer refers to the fact that the cancer cells don’t have estrogen or progesterone receptors and also don’t make too much of the protein called HER2. (The cells test "negative" on all 3 tests.) These cancers tend to be more common in women younger than age 40, who are African-American, or who have a BRCA1 mutation.
Triple-negative breast cancer differs from other types of invasive breast cancer in that they grow and spread faster, have limited treatment options, and a worse prognosis (outcome).
Drawing based on a digital histopathology image of triple negative breast cancer. The staining of the histiochemical with the breast cancer cells gives a pink, red, or purple color.
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"Postcards"
Archival Paper
4" x 5" each, 50 different images, 200 postcards printed in total.
Let us consider cancer like a land. Just like any move to a new land, there is a new language to learn, new people to meet, new landscapes to explore.
The purpose of a postcard is to send a message and a picture from where you are, to someone else. Cancer patients are in this land, and try as they might, family and friends and well-wishers can't understand completely. A postcard is to say "I'm here. This is what my world looks like. This is how I'm doing."
In the interviews, I asked people many questions, including "If your gene or cancer was an object, what would it be?" The answers informed this work, as I would photograph the real objects very close, abstracting them. Objects appear like landscapes - postcard places of where they are. Their descriptions are written on the back, to share the place and the feeling.
This postcard piece is “exhibited” or shared on two postcard stands, similar to ones seen in souvenir shops. These stands are filled with postcards. Gallery participants are invited to pick up, read and engage with, the postcards, and even take them home if they wish.