Help Lisa Battle Breast Cancer!

Hello!  On behalf of her friends, NIADA colleagues and admirers, I'm launching this fundraiser for the extraordinary artist Lisa Lichtenfels, who has (in the last six weeks) lost her husband of 36 years, and been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Either of these traumatic events would be enough to knock a person off their feet, but both together seem more like a call for action to those of us who cherish Lisa, not only as a generous, funny and engaging friend, but also a pioneer in fabric/ mixed media figurative sculpture. She is (or ought to be) a national treasure. And we need your help bolstering her livelihood through this difficult time. She's the lovely lady in the apron, far right, in the photo inset, above, working on her "Masai Warrior" sculpture. The lovely lady and her daschund on the left is one of Lisa's incredibly lifelike sculptures, "Arkia and Astor." Many people mistake images of her work for photographs of people. They're made out of layers of nylon stockings and batting over a wire armature skeleton. And they're utterly amazing. Every one.

So here I am. My name is Connie, and I'm asking you to donate whatever you can afford to help defray Lisa's medical expenses and keep her home and studio lights burning. The loss of a spouse and the shock of a daunting diagnosis is hard enough to endure when you're facing it from within the infrastructure of a clock-punching job and its attendant healthcare, but when you're a freelancer, and paying a la carte for coverage on a sporadic income --even in the age of Universal Healthcare-- such a trauma-combo can be completely overwhelming.

We'd like to raise $36,000: enough to afford Lisa a little peace of mind as she goes through this first round of chemotherapy co-payments, as well as keep her current on her mortgage and utilities and groceries, while she focuses on healing and getting well over the next year. We'd appreciate funds both immediate and ongoing, as her Hx and Rx will be ongoing expenses for the immediate future.

Lisa has devoted her entire life to the development of her art form, and was the voice of encouragement and inclusion for me when I was just discovering that I was not the only person in the world compelled to make the kinds of objects we make, and our friendship over the years became a window into a bigger world for me. 

Help us show her that while her life as she knew it may have altered, she is still an inspiration of extraordinary value here in this life and that her beloved Jerry will just have to wait a little longer to be with her again.... 

Any support you can give will be enormously appreciated by Lisa and all of us who love her.