Hello! Now I’m not sure that many people read my blog and most of you probably already know this from social media. But I figured it cant hurt to document this on my website just in case. So I havent updated my website much or posted any new blogs in the last few months and theres a good reason for it, I promise! In April of this year I was unfortunately diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma which is a type of cancer that originates in the lymphatic system. Spooky right. It was especially frightening for this to happen to me at the ripe age of 31. But apparently this is the type of cancer that can happen to young people so I just happened to be a part of that unlucky statistic. But luckily for me this is a very weak and dumb cancer (my wife’s words) so even with this dark news we had a good reason to believe that I would beat it with treatment.
So beginning in late April I started a 6 month long journey of chemotherapy to slowly destroy these annoying cells who think they have the right to put my life in danger! And to make a very long story short, basically the treatment is working amazingly and as I am writing this blog post I only have 4 remaining treatments! So I am writing this from a much better place with so much more optimism in my heart than I had 4-5 months ago.
All this to say that this has been an incredibly challenging process in every way imaginable and I’m so happy to be at the tail end of it. And luckily I have been able to find a pretty good routine in between my chemo treatments so I actually have been able to paint for most of this summer! And it just so happened that before all of this I was working on a rather big and intensive Terra Human painting that I was able to continue creating when I felt able. Working on this painting sort of grounded me in a way, giving me something to work on and progress through while I was dealing with difficult emotions and scary changes in my body. Even when I was feeling terrible after a treatment I could look at the progress photos of my painting and feel proud of something that I was making.
It feels sort of poetic that as I am now in the final stages of my treatment I am also finally finishing this behemoth of a painting. Everyday I have been meticulously adjusting and adding little things because it will honestly be hard to finally call this painting complete after all we have been through together. I’m looking forward to sharing this painting soon and I really hope that the final product will be worth all of the time and effort.
Thanks for being patient with me as I navigate a particularly difficult period of life. And don’t worry! I will be back to a hundred percent soon!
