This project came about after most of my formal treatment for breast cancer ended. I was ready to find my way back to a routine in the studio, the only problem was, I didn’t know what my purpose was in that space?  After several months of treatment, and living through the effects of chemo, I was/am becoming a new person... literally. New hair, new cells, scars, weird eyebrows, to list a few changes. My attitude on life had also changed, I was unseated as to my 'role' here in the studio, not to mention how I looked at the passing of time.  Upon my return to the studio, I noticed that time was also affected in that space, as I felt I had no connection to the past. If I were to continue working, what was my role in the room? Nothing felt familiar to me. I had changed, and I was fearful that my treatment altered my 'creative DNA' to something/someone that did not belong in that place. This strangeness went on for weeks. Each day, I entered my studio and took the same tour: touching artifacts from trips of days long gone, opening books, thumbing through sketches, paintings, holding brushes the way old “Lisa” would, but nothing rekindled that spark I was looking for to guide me back to a routine. I questioned, 'who I was?' if I was no longer an artist?  If I am still one, then what type? These questions were like a quilt that covered me, each concern was a square but I could not see the pattern.

 

      The idea for this project started with an object in my hand, looking for a vibration that would remind me of my purpose. One day I thought, why not take some of the objects in my studio and draw them? The silent meditative act of drawing could be just the jolt I need to welcome my new creative side into the studio. It was and is, a portal into what lies ahead from my creative soul. I was beginning to feel myself become grounded into the new me and how I 'fit' in my studio space. My view on ‘passing time’ is now measured in a series of “moments”, instead of a 'beginning, middle, and bedtime'.

 

     I am not the “Lisa” from 2019, pre-cancer diagnosis. I am the new, super-powerful “Lisa”, that despite the odds (and this pandemic), will live my life both inside and outside of the studio, 'moment by moment'.  More creating; more gratitude; more openness to change.

 

      I do not know what the future holds in store for the planet, but if I can fill corners of it with beauty, then this is what I will do…with gratitude.

 

Thank you for being a part of this voyage.

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Lisa