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- Frozen
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- The Meat
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- On the Line
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- Huh?
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- Trickery
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- Pear
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- Hiding
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- Exposed
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- Flick
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- Raging
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- One of
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- Invasion
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- Away
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- Multiplying
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- Pummelled
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- No Name
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- Numb
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- Snake
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- Triumph
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- Broken
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- An Embrace
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- Resilience
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- Emerging
Donna Delone
In 2022, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was my 3rd cancer in 12 years. This project is about using images to express what I wasn’t able to say at the time. Growing up in a chaotic home, I learned to not notice internal and external disturbances. But Carl Jung said “what we resist persists and what we embrace dissolves”. This project is my way of embracing the trauma around my cancers in the service of their dissolution. Using myself in the images allows me to view these events as if an observer in order to gain clarity.
My two breast cancers,10 years apart, were almost expected given my family history. I had anticipated it much of my adult life so my response was matter fact, almost numb. Even so, many moments seemed surreal. Radioactive juice being injected into my breasts, with a geiger counter protecting the floor. I checked in for radiation at an abandoned desk, scanned in by a barcode reader. Enormous white machines whirling around my exposed body while techs stood behind a 2 foot cement wall.
The possible damage from the radiation terrified me. Like a game of Whack-a-Mole, complications kept popping up. I was furious that the underbelly of the drugs used for treatment was never acknowledged.
The third cancer, my “early and small” colon cancer, came as an enormous shock! No family history there. No long anticipation. The surgery was extremely difficult and my hospital stay anything but healing. I went home at the first possible moment to my condo with friends checking in. Pain, weakness, vomiting, and utter aloneness encapsulated my first days. I longed for more attention and fearful I would fall apart if I received that. I asked for what I could.
I was left with many unanswerable questions about my future and my “golden years”. Is there another cancer lurking inside? Will that be my demise? What does it mean about my past life and the pride I took in being healthy and strong? Who am I now? What I do know is that I hold the intention to embrace and dissolve whatever comes.
Artist Bio
Donna Delone is an award winning fine art photographer whose imagery is informed by her work as a psychotherapist. Her work focuses on the expression, acceptance and validation of human emotions.
She has exhibited in national juried shows including: “On the Edge11 and”Remembrances”, South Shore Art Center, Cohasset MA; “Pen & Brush Annual Show”, New York City; “National Prize Show”, “Human Condition” and “Passion”,Cambridge Art Association.
She holds a Masters in Social Work (MSW) degree from Boston University and a Photography Certification from New England School of Photography. She has also studied with Jennifer McClure, Cig Harvey, and Stella Johnson at Maine Photographic Workshops and beyond.