Art as a Healing Vehicle for Cancer

My name is Gerry Biron, I’m an artist from southern Vermont and I have been doing portraits of people for over 50 years. During that period, I exhibited my work in over 400 shows nationwide where I won numerous first-place and best-of-show awards for my work. I have also had my portraits of American Indians featured in seven museum exhibits, most recently at the Castellani Museum of Art in Niagara Falls. In 2013, I was diagnosed with cancer and went through seven months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. As you can imagine, that changed my life in a very dramatic way. It also changed my art and that development was what sustained me throughout that period.  The drawings I produced while I was dealing with cancer became the basis for a style of portraiture that strives to personify the subject’s spirit. It’s a departure from my previous, representational work and in a strange way, it was a gift from my cancer. About a year ago, I decided that I should share this gift with other cancer patients. I put out an appeal on Facebook, through the oncology department of my local hospital and by word of mouth to anyone who is either going through cancer treatments or has been through it. The appeal was that if they would honor me by allowing me to do their portrait that when it was completed, I would honor them in turn by giving it to them. For me, this is about creating a meaningful portrait that tells the subject’s story and helps them in a small way in their struggle with this disease.

Honoring ceremonies have long played a vital role in American Indian culture. American Indians honor people for many reasons ranging from marriage, graduation and other notable life accomplishments. It’s also done to provide courage and determination to individuals who are on a journey conquering life’s difficulties. People who are suffering with cancer need to be honored and commended for their strength and resolve to overcome adversity. It’s important for each of us to encourage those who are suffering from this illness; to look out for each other is vital to our society and its existence.
Art is often born of human experience, both positive and negative. As an artist of American Indian descent and a cancer patient myself, this is a way for me to honor those who are going through a similar ordeal. I lost both my parents to cancer as well as several good friends so this disease has touched me in more ways than one. 
Every day, 5000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed; it’s become a fact of life for many of us. My wife and I live a healthy lifestyle. I studied martial arts for 30 years and we were both runners for over 20 years. I've hiked the Long Trail in Vermont as well as sections of the Appalachian trail;I still do yoga and hike every day, and my wife and I eat a wholesome, organic diet, much of which we grow ourselves, yet we both got cancer and within a year of each other. It's a mystery how or why this can happen but in a strange way, my cancer forced me to change direction in my art, to develop a new style, and it especially taught me to be more compassionate. 
The goal for this project is to produce as many portraits of cancer patients as I can and I will donate each piece to them when it’s finished. Each one takes me approximately 75 hours to complete. They are done in full color and the final size is 22 x 30 inches.  The money I'm trying to raise is to offset the cost of the art materials to produce each portrait.

Two of the portraits  are on view below, and you can see all of them on my blog http://iroquoisbeadwork.blogspot.com/




This piece is of Caroline Naberezny. She is a 65-year-old mother of two, grandmother of three and a widow who is currently undergoing treatment for stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Caroline and her partner, Robert John (RJ) of Westminster, are musicians. Caroline has sung in many choral groups and plays several instruments. “Music has certainly been my saving grace during life's hard times and has always led me to push myself further. There is never a time when I don't have a song in my head,” says Caroline. She and RJ are a part of the local musical community and they get together to jam with friends as often as possible. 
“As our daily challenges get a little longer and tougher with this cancer,” says Caroline, “we just laugh and say turn up the music!"

This is a portrait of my wife JoAnne, a Vermont naturalist. She has been interested in moths for years. They are valuable pollinators and a food source for birds, bats and other wildlife. Only a small percentage of the 12,000 species in North America are destructive and most of those are not native but introduced.
“It wasn’t until I started to photograph them and see the beautiful, intricate designs on their wings, that I became obsessed” says JoAnne! “The more knowledge I gain about moths, the more I want to learn.”
The cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia) is North America's largest native moth. They are amazing insects who go through a complete metamorphosis; a tiny egg develops into a caterpillar who spins a cocoon of silk and emerges as a moth. 
JoAnne has gone through her own rebirth since her bout with stage 3 uterine cancer and that is what I have tried to capture in her portrait. Her wings are made of cecropia moths that have helped guide her through her journey.

As a small gift to anyone who donates $25 or more to this project, I will send you a beautifully printed set of four lithographs of birds of prey that I produced a few years ago. Each one measures approximately 4.5 x 5 inches. (Make sure you include your postal mailing address to receive this gift.)

More than any other kind of wildlife, birds have a magical hold on the human imagination. Birds of prey in particular have long been regarded as potent symbols of power and majesty. The uncanny sight of hawks and eagles, absolute masters of the air, soaring at high altitudes and screeching in decent upon their prey, have been a vivid part of natural lore since ancient times. Owls too, silent hunters of the dark, figure prominently in myth and folklore, where they have been worshiped as deities and feared as harbingers of doom.