Irreversibilidad-Irreversibility

Mixed media, pastel, collage and acrylic on paper, 12 by 16 inches.

Pine trees outside my hospital room window.

After the first breast cancer surgery, I stayed long in the recovery area. As I felt myself gradually waking up, I was reluctant to open my eyes, desperately postponing the moment that I had to become aware of what it physically meant to have had an amputation, two lymph node dissections and feel two flanks full of drainage tubes. Outside my hospital room window, no moon, total silence, there stood a row of pine trees, like a Greek chorus to all the tragedies unfolding inside...

The skeleton on my bed, as I now know (see "Birth"), represents my resilience - flesh, blood and bones. You only get to know your resilience when all your certainties fall away...