Cancer patients employ a brushstroke of creativity to overcome chemo

Published 3:45 pm Wednesday, July 6, 2016

WASHINGTON – A month after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Anna Davis took out her pen and set the scene: A hospital room with tile floors. A plant in the corner. A single box of tissues. Herself, the patient, hovering in the middle, alone.

For Davis, a professional artist, sketching that moment was the first step in accepting life with cancer.

On Tuesday, she joined dozens of other cancer survivors, patients and their families to paint canvas murals at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in the District of Columbia. The event launched a 50-day tour by the Foundation for Hospital Art that will bring painting supplies to cancer hospitals in all 50 states.

Not only will the events help patients find comfort and build community, but they also will create vibrant art for hospital walls, said Scott Feight, executive director of the foundation. When finished, the 36 canvases painted Tuesday will become six murals that will hang in cancer treatment rooms in hospitals in the D.C. area and around the country.

“It’s not really even about art,” Feight said. “It’s about brightening the darkest part of peoples’ lives.”

Painting and other creative arts help cancer patients reduce stress, process their emotions and heal faster, said Raquel Nunes, an attending physician at the hospital center who specializes in oncology. The process of creating helps patients’ brains combat chemicals that cause stress. It also wards off depression and anxiety.

“Art can help you focus again on a positive thing,” Nunes said. “It can help you express things you wouldn’t or couldn’t with words.”

Lorenita Lucas saw the paintfest as a chance to catch up with friends she met at the hospital after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2014.

She and her fellow patients formed a tight-knit community through support groups and other activities organized by the hospital and nonprofits groups.

But the 50-year-old fitness instructor was also painting on Tuesday to keep her mind off of a pending medical appointment. Last week, her doctors found a lump on her sternum. On Friday, she’ll learn if that means the cancer is back.

“Being here helps me take my mind off it all,” Lucas said, smiling as she navigated her paintbrush through the intricate feathers of a peacock’s tail.

For two hours, about 50 people gathered around canvases set on tables just outside the front doors of the hospital’s cancer institute, coloring in the blank spaces.

As the expanses of white morphed into brightly colored hummingbirds and hot-air balloons, those painting introduced themselves and shared their stories.

Unlike Davis, almost everybody else was new to painting. All had their own ways of coping with their diagnoses.

Robin Gray found comfort in cooking and crafts after doctors told her she had breast cancer nearly two years ago. She baked cakes and made hats to distract herself from the hospital bills and losing her hair.

“It’s my time away from it all,” she said.

Davis, who is now cancer-free, said she was scared at first to put her experiences with cancer down on paper.

But the black-and-white drawings were essential to coping with her new reality.

“There’s no words in the beginning,” Davis said. “You just have to put something out there and start to process.”

The hospital has offered a variety of creative therapies in the 10 years Nunes has worked there. It’s important to offer patients a range of options, she said, so they can find what helps them best.

After her diagnosis, Davis went through a whole list of ways to help her heal: acupuncture, reiki, medicines. But her art is the only thing that has remained constant since that day in 2013.

Davis, who was 37 when her cancer was diagnosed, said she wants to organize a support group for younger cancer patients and survivors. She’s also working to transform the drawings from her journal into sculptures and, eventually, a book.

“Art makes something good out of a nothing, out of a negative,” she said.