Art Chowder July | August 2017, Issue 10 | Page 21

Breast cancer survivor and East Farms 4th
grade teacher, Dani Wicks, has two daugh-
ters that attend East Farms. Dani came to
me and told me the art project has allowed
her daughters to talk about breast cancer
and to celebrate both her and their grand-
mother’s recovery. It was a tearful moment.
Art has healing powers and I hope the proj-
ect helped other students like it has helped
Dani’s girls.
After working with the students on their
art piece for the project and listening to
their stories about loved ones dealing with
breast cancer, it occurred to me the project
needed to expand and include our students’
loved ones in some way. I decided to add the
names to the art piece of those members in
our community diagnosed with breast can-
cer. We sent out an email to our families and
received 122 names that we used to create
the border of the art piece. Names written
in orange represent breast cancer survi-
vors. The color orange, among other things,
means courage. The names written in blue
are in memory of those who have passed;
the color blue represents heaven.
The project was growing and we wanted it documented. We hired Megan and Rob Kennedy
from Rogue Heart Media to document the process on film. It was one of the best choices we
made. Rob and Megan spent two days at East Farms talking with the students and filming
the art in progress and then spent weeks filming and editing the work from start to finish.
The end result is brilliant. The students tell the story of the art piece, making it so powerful.
You can see the video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/raoM5VBhtNk.
July | August 2017 21