Tineke Meijer
Radiant life
Glass and mixed media
- 15 x 15 inches
My motivation for making this artwork is centered around empathy for so many family members and friends who have had breast cancer over the years. As a survivor of colon cancer, I am aware of how disruptive it could potentially be. This artwork I made specifically for my cousin MarieAnne who has had a mastectomy. It is a celebration of her healing process and our special relationship through art-making. I asked her to provide the title for this work, and so becoming part of the project, and she chose “Radiant Life”.
Sacred Womb 2
Photographic image
- 11 x 11 inches
The content of this artwork is centered around the sacredness and the wonder of the womb, and the foetus it carries, where we are formed to be the person we are. It touches on the womb in time, in reference to a time of great spiritual significance with the mother Mary and the birth of the Christ child, as well as the trauma involved in losing the foetus due to the intervention of cancer
The Pain of Loss
Photographic image
- 12 x 8 inches
The content of this artwork centers around the pain of not being able to have a child of your own due to the removal of the womb after a cancerous growth is detected, and dedicated to the memory of my friend Rika, who subsequently wrote a doctoral thesis on surrogate motherhood. At the same time, it touches on my own pain, after offering to be a surrogate mother to them, that it was not meant to be due to influences beyond my control.