Breast or Beast Collection: Contemporary Art Inspired by the Breast Cancer Journey
Edward Hopper once said that great art is the outward expression of an inner life. Few bodies of work represent a period of my inner life more profoundly than the Breast or Beast collection.
Breast or Beast is a contemporary mixed-media art collection shaped by my lived experience of breast cancer. Rather than illustrating illness literally, the work explores the psychological and physical realities of diagnosis, treatment and recovery through colour, texture and form. It is a visual language rooted in reality and transformed through imagination and artistic intent.
Life is not always predictable or benign. This collection exists in the space where vulnerability and resilience coexist — a place familiar to anyone who has faced serious illness. While deeply personal, the work extends beyond autobiography, inviting viewers to reflect, empathise and engage with the hidden structures of the human body and the experience of disease.
Art, Cancer and the Creative Process
The Breast or Beast collection examines breast cancer through abstraction, fluid acrylic techniques and sculptural elements. These processes are particularly suited to representing cellular structures, organic growth and the microscopic world of human tissue.
Fluid acrylic practice reflects the unpredictability of biology itself. Each artwork is inherently unique; no piece can be reproduced identically. The process demands trust, release of control and openness to uncertainty — qualities that closely mirror the experience of medical treatment, where outcomes are never entirely known and surrender is often necessary.
This approach allows complex subject matter to be encountered through something visually compelling and materially rich, connecting scientific reality with aesthetic experience.
From Breast or Beast to the London Art Fair 2026
The Breast or Beast collection became the foundation for a wider body of cancer-related work, leading to my selection as one of two featured artists at the London Art Fair 2026, taking place from 20–25 January at the Business Design Centre in London.
Both featured artists are breast cancer survivors, each exploring legacy through contemporary art. As the visual artist, I will present a new body of work that blends abstract realism, fluid acrylic techniques and sculptural forms, reimagining cancer cells and immune responses at a microscopic scale.
New works include The Living Network, exploring the hidden architecture of disease; Mapping the Immune Response, inspired by real human tissue imaging; Emergence, which reimagines the earliest development of a tumour; and Immune Assault, depicting the moment immune cells recognise and target cancer cells.
Beauty, Duality and Transformation in Cancer Art
The Breast or Beast collection holds a deliberate duality. It connects the fear and uncertainty of cancer with the beauty of colour, movement and surface, allowing difficult subject matter to be approached through visual curiosity rather than avoidance.
This work is not about pain rendered literally on canvas. It is about transformation — shaping lived experience into something that can be felt, contemplated and shared. Art becomes powerful when it moves beyond observation and becomes sensory and reflective.
I do not believe suffering is a prerequisite for meaningful art. Experience — whether marked by pain, joy or change — becomes art only when it is shaped, considered and translated through process.
A Permanent Home for the Breast or Beast Collection
The Breast or Beast collection is permanently displayed along the radiology corridor at Nottingham City Hospital, where it continues to offer moments of colour, distraction and reflection for patients, families and staff. Encountered within a clinical setting, the work takes on a living role — part of the everyday experience of care rather than a distant gallery object.
Recognition, Support and Continuing Practice
I am deeply grateful to Arts Council England for their continued support of my practice, and to Cancer Research UK for their partnership, including participation in the CRUK / Sky Arts Power of Pledges campaign. These collaborations reinforced the role contemporary art can play in visibility, connection and healing.
Bringing this work to the London Art Fair in partnership with Cancer Research UK feels both professionally significant and personally meaningful — not as a conclusion, but as a continuation of an evolving body of work.