awareness.

ricochet.
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the polaroid diptych:
"A summer with 65 GY, 2000"

icing on the cake.

I am involved in a television program about breast cancer. I was interviewed about my Rebel1in8 website and my Rhea Belle clothing designs. A lot has happened this year with my project and I think the opportunity to participate in this awesome program is a sign that my heart is in the right place- as it is my guide these days.

Produced by Emmy Awards winner Jeelu Billimoria "Breast Cancer: New Thinking & New Therapies" airs this Sat. 10/6 at 7:30pm on WABC TV. If you are not in the NY/Tri-State area the program can be seen via satellite TV (ABC East).

Press release:
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WABCOctober 4, 2007
WABC-TV TO AIR SPECIAL“BREAST CANCER: NEW THINKING AND NEW THERAPIES”
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6 AT 7:30PM

WABC-TV will mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a special entitled “Breast Cancer: New Thinking and New Therapies” beginning at 7:30 p.m., ET on Saturday, October 6. The half-hour special, anchored by Eyewitness News Anchor Diana Williams and Reporter Stacey Sager, will examine the progress being made in breast cancer diagnosis and treatments. From new guidelines on the use of MRI’s to advances in surgery and issues surrounding affordable healthcare, WABC will take a look at the most recent advancements and will highlight the latest thinking on breast cancer.

WABC speaks to medical experts and researchers from New York’s top cancer treatment centers including: Memorial Sloan-Kettering, St. Luke’s - Roosevelt Comprehensive Breast Center, Beth Israel Medical Center Comprehensive Breast Service, Murray Hill Radiology and American Cancer Society. WABC also speaks to survivors of breast cancer and features Kris Carr, author and film-maker of “Crazy Sexy Cancer;” Marisa Acocella Machetto, author of “Cancer Vixen;” and Jacqueline Lou Skaggs, founder, “Rebel 1 in 8” and many others.

This annual special is part of WABC-TV’s continuing commitment to the Making Strides against Breast Cancer Campaign of the American Cancer Society. This marks WABC's 13th year as media sponsors of the Making Strides walk; viewers can learn more about the October 21st event here.

Tune in to “Breast Cancer: New Thinking & New Therapies" on Saturday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Jeelu Billimoria is the Senior Producer of “Breast Cancer: New Thinking & New Therapies.”

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cake and photo created by gcs.

a brush with action.

My friend and artist illustrator activist extroardinaire Nicole Schulman recently participated in the conception and birth of a powerful mural at an intersection in Brooklyn, NY. The mural honors and memorializes fifth-graders Victor Flores and Juan Estrada and 4-year-old James Rice, three young boys who were killed at the busy intersection. It's an incredible and moving tribute and visual message.

Nicole is also the illustrator of "It's only a matter of time" and sells cool jewelry and art at etsy. On top of all that her myspace site is awesome and definitely worth a long visit.

photo:
Celebrate people's history poster, by Nicole.
and
detail of a bodice front.

amazon seamstress.

My friend and crafty rebel spinning knitter gardner apple tree havin' extraordinaire Tina has written a glowing article for etsy's STORQUE about Rebel1in8 and Rhea Belle clothing. I was honored to be a part of such a well written and supportive piece. Because of it I have sold every last Rebel cap necklace in my etsy store so a new batch is in the works!!! Stay tuned because a lot of new jewelry and clothing is coming!

"amazon seamstress". I love that. love. love. love.

photo by gcs.

a break. and stitches.

My favorite poem. And the only poem I can recite...
The Red Wheelbarrow.

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.


by William Carlos Williams, Spring and All, 1923
photo, art: a gift from Tina, paper with pressed buttons and stitches. see detail.

a wooden sky and stars.

"There is no difference between thinking and relative living. Thinking leads to pride, identification, confusion and fear. Work is a function in which we seem to be identified. But in reality work is a part of the process of life in which we cannot perceive the beginning or end of our function. We have no understanding of the process of life, in whole, or in part, and we never will. We cannot therefore identify ourselves with our work. Since the process of life reaches to the furthest star the work of each of us is of no significance in the process. In the great process, in the sum total of the outward being of all living things our work is insignificant, infinitesimal and insignificant. This must be realized."

Artist Agnes Martin, "Writings", page 90

photo: Jeanne at Coney Island, September 2007.

beauty in the dark.

sometimes anger shines like a star in the sky. it's beauty often only seen in the dark.

... If people don't get how offensive and oppressive all of the pink stuff is and how transparent the merchandizing is than I simply don't know what to say to you. But Amy brings up the core issue with the pink products and the marketing. As usual our society has found a way to make money off of breasts. It is as simple as that. And then it's pushed further with a COLOR that is intrinsically attached to the ideals of FEMININE- pink is for girly girls. When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, or worse, has to have a mastectomy her entire social and political ideologies that surround her body collide with her mortality. That's what makes this disease different AND popular. The issue with this pink stuff transcends all of the capitalistic-money-making-monsters and invades my dignity as a woman who has survived this f****** disease TWICE!!! Am I angry? YES. You bet I am. Am I angry that I had cancer? NO. I AM ANGRY FOR THE IGNORANCE THAT SPREADS THROUGHOUT MAINSTREAM AMERICA AND CONTINUES TO SABOTAGE MY INTEGRITY AS AN EQUAL PARTICIPANT IN THE WORLD WHO DESERVES NOT TO HAVE HER BODY, SEXUALITY AND FEMININITY EXPLOITED. Save the boobs, "save the tatas" and pink BREAST awareness are messages that are woven into the forces that drive women into reluctant post mastectomy reconstruction and to wear uncomfortable ugly prosthesis because it's all about the breast, it's all about our femininity isn't it? It's a fear driven campaign.  And if you don't get how manipulated you are by this clever pink seductive "let's pull on their heart strings and offend their sexuality by making it ALL about breast while we're at it" campaign simply to makemoney than you are simply not observing the world with clarity. PINK sells stuff- BREASTS sell stuff and that's the bottom line.
The campaign simply has to change and any strong minded AWARE woman knows this.

that is a response to this.

Note: "When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, or worse, has to have a mastectomy..." By "worse" I am not referring to a mastectomy as an unfortunate mutilating surgery or that the mastectomy is worse than the cancer itself. Mastectomies SAVE LIVES! and after having a lumpectomy followed by radiation treatments at the time of my first diagnoses I can say without regret but with deep hindsight honesty that if I could live it over I would do it differently. After a second diagnoses/re-occurrence several years later (resulting in a mastectomy) I believe a mastectomy the first time around makes better medical and health sense. When I said "worse" I was referring/playing into to the physical, visual symbol of breast cancer "fear" AS IF the mastectomy is the worst part of it.
and
"...because it's all about the breast, it's all about our femininity isn't it?"- please insert a grand tone of distaste here.