Artoma — Nancy VanKanegan

In 2019 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So sadly, I know too many other artists who have experienced this disease. Several of us connected to produce and exhibition called Artoma: the Art of Cancer. The Chicago Art Department hosted the exhibition. It happened in January 2020 shortly before the Pause of Covid 19. All of the artists are in complete recovery at this time and active in our separate and shared lives. Please watch the videos to see the scope of the show. To my absolute delight, 2 members of my own cancer team, my surgeon and a dynamic nurse attended the opening. Please visits Richard Zeid’s album “Artoma” to see the scope of the show. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10162850267295029&type=3

These porcelain works of mine are active meditations of my own body viewed through modern scientific imaging. Meditation on the biological interior of body is, for me, parallel to the metaphysical exploration of the subtle body (layers of awareness or koshas in yoga) through meditation.

The violence of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to remove and control unwanted growth (aka Cancer) seems absolutely counter to nurturing and creation- life itself.. I see my breast cancer treatment as a ‘gardening and pruning’ of physical self through the ‘miracles’ of science.

Exploring color and shape and active layering of mud or clay these narrative porcelain “plates” reference scans of my tumor and lymph nodes