How Art Connects Two Sisters & Gives Hope To Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer

Following my sister Andra’s metastatic breast cancer diagnosis, I collaborated with her over the last year of her life. Our work together led us to explore the concept of hope, and I realised that my workshops have always been about hope: hope as action (Solnit 2004, Gwynne & Hellman, 2018) putting pen to paper is an effort to make something happen.

Andra invited me into the space of her metastatic breast cancer support group and together we delivered a workshop, an experience deeply profound, not only were these women all non- drawers, but they also all had a terminal illness and found meaning in the activity I designed. The women spoke about making thoughts visible to look anew from another perspective. One participant proposed daily sketching as a form of journaling and connection with the self. At the end of my year collaborating with my sister Andra, we had an exhibition Sisters Hope (2022) at Five Years, an artist-run gallery in Archway, where I am a member.

Sharing our practice on social media resulted in an invitation to speak about our collaboration in a webinar hosted by Surviving Breast Cancer, an American organisation empowering those diagnosed with breast cancer and their families: “How Art Connects Two Sisters & Gives Hope To Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer” (2022). I wanted to record a webinar as part of UAL-wide Academic Support’s ‘Inside Creative Research’ resources moderated by my colleague Sukhwinder Sagoo-Reddy (2022 and 2023). We recorded Andra’s words and idea of “strength in vulnerability, flourishing together,” just three weeks before her death. It resonates deeply with many, and recently I received a heartfelt thank you from a librarian colleague at London College of Communication: “I was keen to watch the Power of Action. I found these deeply moving and utterly inspirational. The demonstration of hope as a ‘state of action’ in the context of the sisters’ project was real life instruction – a genuine demonstration of theory into practice – which I found extremely powerful and have been sharing with others.” (Parker, 2025) I wrote a chapter about the collaboration with my sister for Craft and Home: Making, Place, and the Domestic, for Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (forthcoming 2026).

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sFjvZeB...