The Pebble Issue 1

from adversity to art
Cancer masks transformed into masterpieces for charity auction
Everything will be OK.
I’ll be in a better place.
I love you.
By Lily Grenis
Amina Gingold’s mother spoke these words to her while dying of colon cancer.
Gingold paid tribute to her mother by embellishing these phrases with paint and flowers
as a way to transform suffering into beauty.
Gingold and six other MPH students in the Advanced Studio Art class created art out of
radiation masks used to treat head and neck cancer as part of Beneath the SurFACE, a project
organized by the Upstate Cancer Center. Eight schools and 25 professional artists from Central
New York participated in the project, which also educated the artists about these cancers.
Gingold lost her mother, Naomi Chernoff, in fifth grade.
“I wanted it to be something meaningful for the cause,” said Gingold, a senior. “I thought I
would make an ode to her.”
Gingold painted her mask white with tears flowing from its closed eyes. Clustered in the
blue are vibrant flowers, representing beauty growing out of pain.
Creating beautiful art from unimaginable ordeals was no simple task, however. Teresa
Henderson, chair of the Visual Art and Design Department and class instructor, described the
difficulty of doing justice to a cancer patient’s experiences through the masks.
“Because it’s such a big topic and it’s such a real topic,” Henderson said, “the topic has to be
treated with a level of respect, but it also needs to have the balance of the artistic voice as well.”
Six MPH masks, including Gingold’s, were auctioned off at the Upstate Cancer Center in
April. The auction raised more than $6,000 for the center’s head and neck cancer patient fund.
Upstate also produced a documentary about the project designed to serve as an educational
tool for cancer prevention. MPH students were interviewed for the film.
Going forward, Henderson hopes the masks will be informative tools in the community.
“Art isn’t something that just hangs on the wall,” she said. “Art is something that has the
ability to engage, it has the ability to advocate, and it has the ability to bring more information
and more awareness.”
Photo courtesy of Teresa Henderson
Amina Gingold’s mask was featured in an auction benefiting the Upstate Cancer Center in April.
spring 2016 | 31