He won’t have a Mum

-- Mortality Series --
1200mm (w) x 1200mm (h) canvas.
5cm thick (double-thick canvas) and wrap around edging.
Acrylic, spray paint and ink on stretched primed canvas.
Signed and dated.
Ready to hang with d-rings and hanging wire on the back.
2022.
Each artwork comes with an essential oils card on the back which is infused with Revive ‘Courage’ oil. This is the oil my therapist gives me to help calm me down. It’s a beautiful blue which inspired the colour palette in the artworks.
 
The artworks represent the emotions I have moved through in the last ten months while investigating an abdominal tumour. The matt blue area symbolises the part of me that everyone sees. It’s my working life. My life on social media. The friends I see and hug and say ‘I’m doing great’. Everyone at the gym and basketball. The other side of the painting is my private life. My emotion and turmoil. It’s all the things I’m hiding and keeping to myself. It’s the fear of weakness and vulnerability. It’s what I don’t want my son to see. I don’t want him to see how scared I am. Typographically each work depicts the primary emotion I was feeling at the time: alone, empty and broken.
 
This is an original painting. Artwork comes with certificate of authenticity and Sarah Sculley promotional goods, professionally packed for shipping (included in price). If you live outside of Australia, please get in touch to discuss delivery options.
 
Synopsis
In December 2021, my doctor sent me off for an Ultra Sound. I had a stomach ulcer that wouldn’t go away. He thought I had gallstones. Who cares what we both thought - they found something different. A large mass. I wasn’t too concerned. I knew I had a small benign tumour in the space of my right kidney from when I had cancer as a kid. I assumed they had just found some scar tissue that had been left behind from the major surgery to remove parts of the old tumour. I was wrong. I was very naive when I showed up to my specialists appointment. Ready to explain that it’s just a bit of scar tissue and then I’d be on my way. The doctor showed me the scan. The tumour was on the other side of my body - about the size of a grapefruit. The doctor kept asking if I had back pain. It was pushing up against my spine. He handed me some blood work to get done and said the hospital would be in touch. I walked around to pathology and sat waiting for them to call my name. I phoned my Mum. When I looked down at the pathology form to tell her what they were testing for, it was a long list of cancer markers. That’s when I started panicking. All I could think of was my son, Koda. He’s seven years old. How could I explain this to him? Could I hide it from him? What if he ended up with no Mum?