Millions of women face Chemo Today. Writing the application for the Regional Arts Project Grant, RAPG, focused my thinking about the project I had proposed, “Chemo Today”. A bald, scarred, woman is huddling in her closet. Each woman knows there is no way to hide from this disease, or disguise the toll it takes on their bodies and soul. Double doors open to reveal a foreshortened closet, a place to hide. She does not want to face her fears, sickness, and the medical mangle called “health care”. She’s gathering her wits, focusing her chi, pulling herself together. Any minute she will leap to her feet, or stagger, put something on her head, and march out the door to her future.
The left hand door addresses the strange thing that happens with time. Appointments, treatments, and doctors visits seem interminable. Then the days seem to be flying past. The right hand door has a portrait of the strange being who has hijacked her face. The pieces of the broken mirror are flying out from it, the way her life feels, shattered.
Chemo Today is dedicated to Bobbi Lambert, 1949-2009.
