Cautiously Optimistic

by Linda Spery

(Nantucket, MA and Long Beach, CA)

“The women’s breasts in the forefront at the top represent current breast cancer patients who are recuperating from surgery with drains affixed to their bodies. The breasts further in the  back not connected to drains represent all the many breast cancer cases to come but with a brighter future when this particular type of drain device is improved to provide a more humane and less intrusive design.  There has got to be a better way!

 

I decided to paint the drain tubes in happy colors to offset the reality of what they really look like. The grenade has a double meaning—the ends of the drains are sometimes called “grenades” because of their shape.  I think it’s ironic that as breast cancer patients and survivors, we are facing real health-related grenades every year at our annual exams with the possibility that cancer will once again emerge.”