Table of Contents
Inside
Newsline
Research: What Psychologists Have Learned
Practitioners and Cancer Care
Coping with Cancer
Public
Outreach
Psychology Education and Training
Art from the homepage
"Symphony"
Elliott Sossei, Bethel, Conn. Acrylic, 1995
I have lived under the dark shadow of cancer for 35 years. When it struck, I was an otherwise healthy 19-year-old about to begin his journey into adulthood. Unprepared, unknowledgeable and frightened, I began a life-long struggle: first to cope with the fear and pain of three extensive operations followed by months of nauseating radiation, finally with a lifelong vigil, ever on the nervous edge, looking for signs of the disease to return.
Somehow I beat the odds and began my career in the arts. Ironically, it was the cure, the radiation, that has caused my body the most harm.
Over the years, first with sculpture and then with painting, I realized how much my work, in spite of myself, has taken on a kind of healing process. I am often surprised by what I have created. It is as if a subconscious entity, aside from my conscious mind, can get at a level of expression that bypasses my usual fear and apprehension and creates art that is, in some ways, healing, harmonious, and occasionally even humorous.
I am the proud father of three, now grown, adopted children.
The art in this issue
Throughout this special issue, the Monitor is featuring art created by people who have been faced with cancer, whether they were diagnosed with the disease, had a family member with cancer or lived in a community where cancer hit. Their art is a means of expressing their feelings and coping with the changes that cancer brings.
The artwork we've chosen is part of Confronting Cancer Through Art, a unique virtual gallery sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center and the Arthur Ross Gallery, located at www.oncolink.upenn.edu/ccta/.
APA extends special thanks to all of the artists and to those who coordinate the gallery.
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