Mastectomy Garden
This art piece is one in a series of Body Acceptance paintings. To learn about the full series, click here.
“Cancer saved my life.” When Julia spoke those words to me, I was struck with how different that was from what I’d expect to hear.
After having breast cancer, a double mastectomy, chemo & radiation, and reconstructive surgery, Julia wants people to know “bodies can be beautiful this way too”
Her healing journey led her to make significant changes in her personal life. This painted garden honors her story.
Meanings
Together, we created a piece full of symbolism to honor her family roots, past and present.
Plants:
These Raspberry vines trace the lines of Julia’s surgery scars. Her father was a “Bracero” — a Mexican immigrant farmer, who specialized in raspberry farming. He became a sharecropper, supporting his family and giving extended family opportunity through this work.
Marigold flowers / flores de cempasúchil were favorites of her Papa as well, and in the tradition of Dia de los Muertos, their scent is thought to leave a welcoming door open between the worlds.
Creatures:
While Julia was going through treatment, her father passed away, followed by her mother the next year. They are represented here by doves. In a dream Julia had, her father asked that she and her sisters tend his ailing garden, calling them “mis hijas voladores” – my flying children. She dreamt that she was a hummingbird, and her sisters were a dragonfly and butterfly coming to take care of the garden. In real life, her father had started a garden for her sister in Sacramento, and transplanted some of his raspberry plants that he had originally tended in Watsonville to it! A pair of fluffy doves actually come to visit her sister’s garden regularly. In our painting and in real life, the plants and creatures are flourishing.
Color:
The pink in the background is strongest right where her cancer was found.
The ribbon of colors at the bottom signify important people in Julia’s life now — her children and sister-in-law — who help “hold her together.” This ribbon traces the scar where her belly fat and muscle were taken to rebuild her breasts in her TRAM reconstructive surgery.
Julia is a person of such strong faith and clarity. Despite her cancer diagnosis, she was never worried. She says her doctors were sometimes worried, but she believed in what was meant to be, and she would fight this cancer because God had a plan for her and it was not yet her time.
A couple months after we finished the painting, Julia looked and thought about it all more, and had the happy feeling that actually:
“Maybe, in my dream, the garden is me! Maybe my family is saying ‘We are taking care of you’ and surrounding me on my journey.”
Art & Design
In designing this piece, it was tricky for me to decide what the scope should be: how much of her to paint, how many aspects of her stories to include. In our talks I heard things that compelled me to maybe paint her legs too, since there has also been pain there. Ultimately I felt like this was the amount we both wanted to take on.
Artistically, I wanted to choose plants that would show the shape of her scar lines, but not be scraggly looking like some of the vines I considered, or too obscuring with big flowers. I like that raspberries can have interesting flowers and berries. We have some growing at my house (yum!) so I referred to pictures I’d taken of them. My artistic license let me skip painting the thorns though!
In looking at hummingbird photos, most of them showed hovering birds with bodies tipped up. I thought the composition would flow and feel more like everyone was connecting to each other if I tilted the bird to swoop down.
I like to ask clients what feels right placed where on their bodies, and she said her Mama & Papa doves belonged right on her heart! It’s important to pay attention to the person’s curves so nothing important gets too bent, and I like the way these birds nestle into her heart space and into each other, making interesting shapes in between them.
It is always a treat to get to team up with photographer Devi Pride to help this art be seen, long after it’s washed down the drain. She makes the shoots fun and upbeat as well as providing masterful lighting, framing, and guidance about posing. Devi and I get so excited together about the beautiful little gestures we see people doing!
“I loved it, you made me feel beautiful.”
Julia’s incredible giving spirit motivates so much of her life.
With this piece, she wishes to inspire others to bravely get surgery if they need it, and feel good about themselves. We are currently working on a set of prints to give to her doctors, in hopes of encouraging other people dealing with cancer.
Here’s an interview of Julia telling this story herself!
Please reach out if you have any questions or if you know anyone who would benefit from this kind of experience.