AMHERST, N.S. – Quirky is not often a word you’d associate with breast cancer.
However, that’s just how Carol McCall and Gwen Dixon would describe their take on breast cancer as they host a fibre arts exhibit at the Tidnish Bridge Art Gallery from Oct. 6 to 13.
The artists’ reception is set for Tuesday, Oct. 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the gallery on Highway 366 in Tidnish Bridge.
When McCall, who recently moved back to Amherst from Newfoundland, was diagnosed last year she could have fallen into the depression or funk that comes with being told you have a life-threatening disease.
Instead, she tried to find humour at every opportunity and maintained a positive attitude – something she expressed in art as a recent fine arts graduate at Newfoundland’s College of the North Atlantic.
“I’ve always been a positive person and everyone I was involved with during my treatment was positive, from the doctors and the nurses, to my husband. The support was so good,” McCall said. “I like colour, and in no way am I’m trying to make light of cancer because I still have to deal with it the rest of my life, but all my pieces are very colourful. When I see things, I see them in colour.”
For Dixon, who lives in Riverview, she was never diagnosed with breast cancer, but has lost family members to the disease and was told she was high risk for future diagnosis. She decided to nip it in the bud by having a double mastectomy.
“I was always hesitant to share my story with others until I met Carol,” Dixon said. “The first time we met for coffee at Starbucks in Moncton I said so many people I know have gone through cancer and chemo, but I don’t think I can tell people I had a double mastectomy, but she said you have to share your story because you’ve been affected. Someone saying that sort of gave me permission.”
Like McCall, she chose to express her experience in art. It was from a dinner date the pair decided to show their work to others as an exhibit at the Tidnish Bridge gallery to not only raise awareness about breast cancer, but let people know they need not fear a cancer diagnosis and that’s it’s OK to be open and to talk to others who are either fighting the disease or have beaten it.
Neither Dixon nor McCall want people to think they’re taking cancer lightly because the outcomes for so many people are not positive. But, both said they felt expressing their experiences through their art was therapeutic, if not thought-provoking and a discussion starter.
For the pair, they tried to reflect on the key points of the process. For McCall, one of her pieces, which she calls Zapped, is a lightning bolt-shaped piece with cancer cells in the middle seemingly getting hit by radiation.
“We thought about the images and whether we could make the images. It’s one thing to get the image, but it’s quite another to interpret it into a piece of art,” McCall said. “I had a few ideas that were quite intricate and detailed and I had to change my mind in how I’d interpret them in fibre.”
As much as McCall’s work shows the process she went through, Dixon’s are more of a bigger picture of the struggle against breast cancer.
The pieces included some hooked pieces and others that are needle-felted and assemblage art while other fibre techniques are used.
One of the biggest messages they want to share is cancer can be beaten and that some of the diagnoses that were virtual death sentences a decade ago or more are now beatable and that is more remission.
“People have to be more hopeful, but they also have to educate themselves, ask questions, see the alternatives and don’t be afraid,” McCall said. “Have faith in the system because they are out there to help you as much as they can and they are so kind and generous.”
Twitter: @ADNdarrell
