Cancer Collage, Painted Papers, Marcia Carole
Shortly after I was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, I made this collage. What I am trying to “say” in this piece is this: I feel I am in a very dark, black place, and very much alone with my cancer. I am the little house on stilts in the dark box. I know, I alone, have to carry the assignment of cancer in my body. No one else seemed to be coming along saying, “Hey, I’ll take that cancer, just hand it over.” My only hope of escape from cancer or my dark “box” is my faith in Jesus and what He did for me on the cross. In the bright, light part, I am showing, He will either heal me or take me home to Heaven.
So, I put the red strip of painted paper going out of my darkness of cancer and bringing me into the light. The red strip coming out of the black box of cancer shows I am trusting Jesus to bring me out of the darkness. The light is my place of healing. Trusting I have a place of healing in Jesus, brings me even closer to Him, and His faithful, loving presence.
I showed that the cross has a shadow, alluding to Jesus’ own suffering and death. I made the shadow smaller than the cross itself because Jesus conquered death on that cross for each of us, and rose from being dead for three days. I wanted to show the cross as both a way out of the darknesses of our lives and more powerful than death. As a cancer patient, fear of death can loom large during part of each of my days.
This is how I tell my story through art or help others tell parts of their stories using painted papers, colors, shapes and textures. For me, it is encouraging to my soul to make this type of artwork. I am telling my soul a little sermon of encouragement through the art-making. I am also worshipping God, because I am sharing with Him and others what He is like.
Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again–my Savior and my God! Palm 43:5
