> English artist, Heath Rosselli, shares her point of view with us

<1. How I came to paint Evelyn

I didn’t set out to do this – it happened by accident! This facet of my art began thirteen years ago, when Evelyn, my new neighbour, and I were sharing a bottle of wine one evening, shortly after she had moved in. She was telling me how upset she was that people “pitied” her, and imagined her to be very much more disfigured than she considered she actually was. She wanted to make a public statement about this in some way to show the world she is happy the way she is, happily married and leading a successful life. It also seemed a good way of celebrating her fifth year of being clear of cancer. So I painted her and entered the picture into the BP Award at the National Portrait Gallery. There it received much attention from the media. Suddenly it was in all the newspapers in a way we could never have imagined and hundreds of letters poured in for Evelyn from women who themselves had mastectomies, congratulating and thanking her for standing up and being their “voice”. It seemed then that Evelyn had done womankind a huge service. From there the painting went to hospitals and the odd conference, carrying its message around the world.

It wasn’t long after painting Evelyn that I found myself approached by a lady who had had a breast re-construction who wanted to be painted too, and found this to be healing process. Then another lady came to me, and then another, and so it continued. Several women, all feeling that the process of being painted was cathartic, liberating and healing. I discovered there is a real need for this kind of art. For these women, who mostly came to be the way they were through illness or accident, the very act of putting themselves forward to be painted has been a recognition and acceptance of an altered image.

The message of Evelyn’s painting is the triumphant overcoming of breast cancer, and show a beautiful woman who has come to terms and accepted the way she looks with one breast. . Also, it draws attention to the narrow and shallow confines that modern society sets for itself. I aim to challenge popular misconceptions, nurtured by certain elements of the media, celebrity culture and glossy magazines. It is, if you like, sticking two fingers up at the idea that all women should aspire to look like the stereotypical 21st century “beauties” we see in these magazines. They aren’t even real – they are mostly airbrushed and heavily photoshopped. It also speaks to those of us who believe we need to pay thousands of pounds trying to perfect our image, when the truth is that beauty lies in the strength and personality within.

As with all the other paintings in this series on disfugurements of various kinds, there has been an element of trust needed between sitter and painter and we have always got to know each other very well. I felt that as the painting evolved, Evelyn became more relaxed and comfortable with the idea, just the same as any other sitter might feel. I think, as in any portrait, at the outset both artist and sitter are wondering how the project will take shape – it is an unknown quantity for both of us, and neither of us really know what the painting will look like when it is complete !

As I painted her, Evelyn’s mastectomy more or less forgotten. I would never treat Evelyn, or any sitter for this kind of painting, in any way different from a painting of someone without a birthmark or physical difference. There were absolutely no differences in my approach… The same with other scars I have painted over the years. I had to make a conscious effort to remember it was there and put it in. I found Evelyn’s beauty in her face: an expression, a look in her eye, her strength, positivity and sense of humour, and a deep thinker all shone out of her and make up the beautiful woman she undoubtedly is. There were no compromises – there was no need, nor ever has been with these paintings. We are far more likely as portrait painters to be making compromises at the request of a sitter who is commissioning us to paint them in the traditional manner !

The holistic properties of a painting
I have found over years of painting these kind of pictures, that in their evolving, in certain cases where an accident or illness has happened, the very act of putting themselves forward to be painted has been a recognition and acceptance of an altered image. It must a cathartic thing to do, or people would not have come to me inviting me to paint them.

2. What I am aiming to convey in these paintings

I am aiming to show a woman at ease with herself and happy, someone who is loved and cherished as she is. This is, as I said earlier, sticking two fingers up at the notion that beauty is all to do with a flawless image, the glossy magazine look that is in fact a huge lie. I am trying to say what the true definition of beauty actually is, and that is something that shines out from the inside.

3. What is beauty ? What am I trying to capture ?

The beauty one tries to capture as a portrait painter, is something within. Where the features are and if there is anything unusual, physically speaking, in a face of body, is completely secondary to that invisible thing we are trying to capture, and therein lies the beauty of a person. It is caught in an expression, a twinkle in the eye or a quirky smile perhaps, a personality trait, a laugh. Beauty lies in the nature of a person, and the physical features and how they appear are incidental to the true beauty and attraction of a person. It would be wrong to say, for example, “if you cover that bit up, the rest is beautiful, because it is the make up of the whole person that creates the beauty”. What evolves as the months go by during the painting of a portrait is an inner knowledge of the person we are painting and to capture that is the ultimate goal, because it is that which carries the message of the painting.

4. Should art be used as a medium to challenge society ?

Yes, art is a marvellously direct way of speaking to people. Personally speaking, this is the raison d’etre for me as an artist; it is a means of standing up and shouting things about which I feel passionate. I always say that are three languages of communication beyond the spoken word: art, music and poetry. I think art touches inner parts of our soul, that the written word doesn’t always reach in quite such an immediate way. Just as when we hear a beautiful piece of music, which has the power to instantly move us as we hear it, or a poem that can communicate and transmit a highly charged emotion within a few lines, the impact that a work of art has can touch us at our core in an instant, and can speak a message or an emotion in a condensed kind of way, that sometimes words find hard to express.
So while society, as we see all around us all the time, is barking up the wrong tree, we have the power as artists to make a public statement and hopefully change the mistaken attitudes we see every day. For instance, I believe, and part of what I am trying to say is that from a very young age, maybe people should be more exposed to “differences”, exposed more readily – there shouldn’t be a belief that “normal or perfect” is the only way. It is all too easy for impressionable minds to be led to believe that there is a “norm” – and we all have to aim for flawless perfection.

Perfect symmetry does not equal beauty. There is no such thing as normal; we are all different and we should be celebrating our differences and embracing them – it is what makes us who we are and what makes up life’s rich tapestry.

Lien : http://www.heathrosselli.co.uk/

> DUBAI : Store hopes topless mannequin will raise cancer awareness

Tala al Ramahi, The National, 28 October 2008

"A few years ago, Cheryl Mason and Jan Curtis would not have dreamt of leaving the mannequins at their swimwear store dressed only in bikinis. 

Yet these days, their Bare Essentials shop at the Jumeirah Centre has a mannequin that is not only underdressed, but topless – with just one breast. The mannequin was put there as part of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, and will remain until the end of November.
Mrs Mason and Ms Curtis want to bring the issue of breast cancer further out into the open. They have tagged all of their merchandise with brochures detailing how women can self-check for lumps, and put posters in their changing rooms.

“It is only natural to be raising awareness at such stores,” Ms Curtis said, “because women will be trying on swimwear tops and bras in the changing rooms, and the whole subject is relevant to such an experience.”
The mannequin was not placed in the store window, to avoid offending passers-by. Mrs Mason said reaction from female customers has been very positive. 


“We were worried that the mall management might have a problem with the display, but we have had no complaints,” she said. 

Ms Curtis said they are proud to be the only store doing such a campaign, “but it is also a shame that there isn’t enough awareness happening in lingerie and swimwear stores”. The idea for the campaign came from the Dubai office of Memac Ogilvy, an advertising and public relations agency.
 
Lien : http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081028/NATIONAL/775413026

> England : the portrait of an Amazon has gain international prominence for both artist and sitter

Heath Rosselli painted her friend amazon Evelyn Satterlee

Lien : http://www.heathrosselli.co.uk/

> Canada : Photographic exhibition of people with cancer in the Toronto Star, « Cancer Connections » by the collective, Photosensitive

These photographs, published in the newspaper 'Toronto Star', are part of an exhibition 'Cancer Connections', which aims to increase awareness of cancer risks.

It opened in Toronto in May 2008, before showing in Charlottestown in June and Montreal in September 08.
Over the next two years it will continue to grow as it travels across Canada.

The exhibition was organised by PhotoSensitive, a non-profit collective of photographers with a social conscience co-founded by Drew Stawicki, in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society.
  
Lien : http://www.photosensitive.com/cc/

> In China, some women pose nude to fight against breast cancer

In China, some stars appear naked for the “Pink Ribbon” campaign against breast cancer.
A scourge which affects more and more young women like Zhao Chen Guang, who also posed.
 
Lien : http://www.aujourdhuilachine.com/article.asp?IdArticle=4902

> * United States : The patient's own choice of treatments

Dani S. Grady

As in France, the overall incidence of Breast Cancer in the United States is 1 in 8 women. Nearly 190, 000 women will be diagnosed and 42,000 will die of it.

Since I was diagnosed with breast cancer 20 years ago, many advances have been made in the early detection, treatment and public perception of the disease. However, what remains unchanged is that a woman still faces the fight of her life. She must, in short order, navigate treatment options that include choices of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. At the same time, the news of a breast cancer diagnosis can and often does immediately a create crisis of self-image for a woman.

Many factors affect a woman’s choice of surgical options. The decision is certainly a difficult one, deciding among breast conservation, mastectomy, and breast reconstruction. Even when mastectomy is not medically dictated, it remains an option. Breast reconstruction is also generally an option, but it too is not an easy or clear-cut choice. The plastic surgeon’s aim of reconstruction is to approximate the appearance of the breast when clothed. But surgery will never restore the original breast, and there are significant possible complications and side-effects of the surgery, including pain, infection, multiple surgeries and the occlusion of recurrent breast cancer, which makes detection much more difficult.

Of women facing localized breast cancer, in France, the mastectomy rate is 28%, Belgium 37% and in the US it is 51%. The US woman’s rate of choosing breast construction is less than 1 in 5 and in France it is 1 in 10. By law since 1999, insurance must cover the costs of reconstruction, but there has not been a large increase in women opting for reconstruction. In the US, the overall satisfaction rate among women who have had both mastectomy and reconstruction is lower than for those who have had mastectomy alone. As contradictory as this seems, it reflects the fact that plastic surgery is not a cure-all for the challenges to the body and self-image that comes with breast cancer.

In my own situation, due to the high probability of a recurrence of my breast cancer, my physicians strongly advised me to wait for two years before attempting reconstruction. Initially, it seemed like an eternity to wait for the possibility of being “whole” again. However, during that time, I slowly adjusted to my new body and realized that the quality of my life was undiminished by the surgery. The strength I realized in fighting for my life, translated into an enhanced self-esteem. In fact I found that I was alive, truly alive. A few years later, I fell in love and married my truly wonderful husband: among his many great traits is his appreciation for asymmetry in art as well as his wife.

Over my many years of working in the cancer community, one of the most important things I have learned is that whatever informed treatment choice you make is the best choice for you. You make it, you own it and move forward and don’t look back. In recent years, the medical community in the US has focused on trying to respect this process of patient choice. The respect of the medical community and the public for the patient viewpoint is a product of the considerable growth of the patient advocacy movement in the U.S. over the past twenty years. Patient advocates have contributed to a newfound self-esteem on the part of cancer patients. In the twenty years since this movement began, and in all of my experience in helping newly diagnosed cancer patients, I have never heard a patient criticized for her decision to have breast reconstruction or not.

Cancer is your own individual journey and must be respected as such. The way one chooses to mount the fight is and should be respected as your own unique journey. It is after all, your life. ”