Going Public

This article is developed for the purpose of exploring visual art as a case study of two landscape paintings as trauma management for the male cancer carer. Artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Marina Abramovic, and Anselm Kiefer have all worked with the concept of emotional suffering and its aftermath. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy can be effective in treating cancer, but these do not cure the mental health effects, which can be just as debilitating to the sufferer and primary carer. Resilience, financial difficulty, the presence of chronic diseases, and the severity of nausea and vomiting significantly influence the quality of life of patients with cancer who were undergoing radiotherapy (Seol et al.). Numerous medical and science-based investigations have explored how we regulate emotion and negative mood (Heintzelman et al.). By doing so they have contributed to a broader quantity of study specific to health management (Carver & Scheier). It can be reasoned from these studies that emotional catharsis enhances positive mood and brings focussed lucidity to mental cognition. This article argues that creativity originating by cancer trauma, and by exploring the landscape genre in a critical studio practice, can be a significant vehicle for positive health and well-being. The contemporary medical term for this re-emergence of self is Post-Traumatic Growth, a time after trauma that integrates part of the old but significantly a re-invention of the original inner (Joseph et al.). Post-Traumatic Growth integrates sections of the old self, and at the same time reinterprets anew (Pike). The most defined approach to understanding Post-Traumatic Growth is based on five determinants. These include an appreciation of new possibilities, personal strength, spiritual change, and appreciation of life. “Relating to others” means that individuals who experience adversity develop a greater sense of closeness to specific people in their lives and begin to appreciate their family and friends more (O’Donovan & Burke). Post-Traumatic Growth may lead to new life directions, including an understanding of inner strengths not before realised, newfound appreciation of life, or, as in this case study, a creative investigation using landscape painting as health outcome. Cancer-related fatigue is a common symptom experienced in cancer patients and this includes depression, anxiety, and worrisome stress (Weber, O’Brien). The psychological effects of cancer on the primary (in my case study male) carer can include feelings of helplessness, a sense of personal life forfeiture, and significant emotional distress (Northouse et al.). Caregivers are also involved in the many physical hands-on aspects of cancer patient care. In this case study these included communication with hospital and medical staff, supervision of treatments, dispensing medicine, cooking meals, house cleaning, domestic and family duties, to name only a few (Given et al.). In the early cancer narrative the normal decision-making paradigm of life, for the sufferer and those closest, is ceded to the medical schedule (Lesure & Chongkham-Ang). Life is dominated by hospital and specialist physician appointments and drug regimen. In this case study the artworks enabled a cathartic fecundity to exist in the studio. The exhibition Indeterminate Landscape: A Cancer Carer's Creative Journey (Bywaters) gave a visual public outcome that acknowledged a case study embedded in depression and angst. Such is the “artistic imagination that it can create a world more real and more haunting than that which our family see daily” (Klepac 90). “The decline in quality of life in a cancer caregiver family occurs in almost all domains” (Maziyya et al.). The male primary carer needs to find a way to give voice to the cancer trauma, write it down, talk to the therapist, or as I have, paint (Marchese). Various researchers have investigated emotion and negative mood (Heintzelman et al.). The scientific study of how we manage negative mood to achieve greater subjective well-being is linked to the growing field of positive psychology, whose goal is to understand how people flourish (Seligman; Csikszentmihalyi). I have deliberately used the display of visual emotion as public awareness for greater understanding of cancer and its impact, both personally and on the broader community. The exhibition (Bywaters) included several detailed artist's statements alongside the displayed paintings. The exhibition was held in a secondary school, with the paintings listed for sale at a price kept affordable for students to buy. All sales were donated to Cancer Council Tasmania, and this was widely promoted by the Examiner newspaper (Bailey). The media coverage aided the message of positive discussion on cancer and its impact on the male carer as case study. As I stated in the Examiner article regarding the research: “the important thing is our journey is no different to any others that have cancer. We’re in the same landscape where you work with the great unknown on a daily basis” (Bailey 3). The paintings depict physical sites specific to our family cancer journey. The artwork in this case study originates with emotional anxiety produced by the daily life struggle that cancer has generated. Love, desire, and landscape are brought together to promote by public exhibition a discussion that includes male identity and medical trauma. Visual observation can sometimes shift public perception and provide an entryway into a problem that can feel abstract or complex (or both; Yanagihara). Writing and sculpting, can serve as a powerful tool that allows the person facing death and trauma to work through the painful mourning that comes with loss or with the end stage of life. This occurs in large part because one’s perceptions of time can change while being actively involved in artistic expression. (Dreifuss-Kattan) Numerous contemporary artists have considered the impact of cancer as creative visual concept. Holis Sigler and Hannah Wilke are two significant historical examples, who both succumbed to cancer. In 1999, Sigler’s Breast Cancer Journal presented a pictorial chronicle of sixty paintings tracing her grappling with breast cancer. Wilke’s posthumously published Intra-Venus (1992–1993) is a photographic record of the physical transformation and deterioration caused by chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant. Perhaps the most famous mainstream image of breast cancer is Beauty Out of Damage (1993), a self-portrait by Matuschka that appeared on the cover of the glossy New York Times weekend magazine. This photograph is widely considered the first example by a daily news publication of a topless woman with surgically removed breast (Vogel). More recently, the 1990s supermodel Linda Evangelista has been photographed with mastectomy scar showing on the cover of Selt Magazin, a sister publication of the German weekly Die Zeit (Ferla). Australian photographer Carrol Jerrems was diagnosed in 1979 with polycythaemia, a rare blood-related cancer. While a patient at Hobart Hospital, Jerrems photographed and wrote about her physical decline. She documented the doctors, surgery scarring on her stomach, and the daily physical impact of the cancer treatment. Photography enabled Jerrems to archive and attempt to understand what was happening (King). With the forensic detailed imagery of Jerrems's surgery stitches and bloated stomach reflected by mirror as self-portrait, we are only too aware of the cancer's emotional and physical impact. Jerrems mirror self-portraits offer a reality that coalesces artist, patient, body, and photograph (King). To review these specific art examples has enabled this case study, a subjective comprehension of the cancer impact upon my partner. As noted in my visual diary entries between February to April 2020, my partner was obviously very concerned about the physical and mental impact of the full mastectomy. It is potent to review these scribbled entries now that time has passed, with the first-hand immediate reflections being valuable research for the two created paintings. The Paintings In the first trauma-filled immersive months of cancer, creativity and solitude in the studio enabled exploration of the male self via the landscape metaphor. The paintings give resonance to the male carer as fraught with underlying terror and the potential lost hope of a shared future. Alongside the milieu of life expectations, the carer must manage the emotive unknown impact on life expectancy. There are social changes with a shift from usual participation in life activities to a focus on the challenge of being a caregiver (Schulz & Eden). The greatest fear when caring for somebody you love suffering with cancer is the dread of losing that person. I was able with the studio practice to visualise my subjective male cancer experience. A creative juxtaposition that incorporated the unknown future with the routine management of daily life. The expectation that someone we love will be there for us – whether it’s a caregiver, a romantic partner, a child, or someone else – is a fundamental part of our bond (Seeley & O’Connor). Fig. 1: Malcom Bywaters, The Western Tiers, from Launceston, 2023. Mixed media on canvas, 122cm x 183cm. Collection: Scotch Oakburn College. The aftermath of our family cancer judgement has delivered a personal philosophical serenity, as depicted with the bright illuminated sun shape in fig. 1: The Western Tiers, from Launceston, 2023. In the distance from our home backyard, we can see the snow resting across the mountainous Western Tiers, Launceston, Tasmania. The painting gave me an anchor, a physical action to visualise the anger and engulfing distress, the outcome being a tableau landscape of emotional trauma. The terrifying aftermath of trauma can cause both negative and positive psychological outcomes (Romeo et al.). As Hancock articulated regarding the impa