Fight and Flight

The fight or flight response is a physical reaction built deep in our bodies and brains, helping us to react to a perceived harmful event or threat to survival. A rush of adrenalin courses through our veins, inducing us to grab a weapon or run like the wind. When diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2013, my fear, and desire to fight or flee the unseen foe inside me, grew day by day. But I could neither do battle with a physical enemy, nor run away from it. Fighting cancer meant continuing on with my life as normal: overseeing my family, filming an online course, starting a new book, and carrying on holidays with a brave and cheerful face. But as a RISD professor on sabbatical, I made it my primary goal to fight back with knowledge. I started researching this new “project”… as there’s no clear roadmap when battling breast cancer. With all the information that I could learn, and with the support of my partner, friends and family, I chose to have a double mastectomy followed by radiation. By April of 2014, my bout with breast cancer was, I hoped, behind me. I’d fought the enemy and all I wanted to do was to close the door, put my feelings in a box and move on. I couldn’t. As an artist and storyteller, images of my psychological and emotional journey tumbled in to my head. Creating charcoal drawings that explored my experience and told my story helped me to understand the complexity of dealing with life after breast cancer. I began to transform the idea of fighting and flying from a fear based physical reaction, to a metaphor of change. Birds in the drawings symbolize what I lost because of breast cancer, and what I gained as well. Each drawing helped me to move closer to healing, and to “flying” with my new colors, once more. As a very private person, I had no intention of sharing these stark, personal images. I had made them as a way to heal, not for public display. But when I showed them to a few close friends and saw their reaction, I started to think differently. In talking to other survivors, I’ve realized that my feelings are not mine alone; I share them with a Sisterhood of women who’ve felt what I’ve felt. One survivor told me that she thought these drawings might help, not only other women with breast cancer, but also family and friends wanting to understand what’s happening in our hearts and minds as we navigate our way with both fight and flight.