Lifestyle/Community
Ellaine’s artworks help fight cancer
Ellaine Hirshowitz, a psychoanalytic therapist and artist – and herself a survivor of breast cancer – donated a series of her artworks to DL Link, an organisation for guiding and helping people on their breast cancer journey. DL Link provides emotional, psychological and lifestyle support to patients and their families while the patients are treated.
TERRI FLEISHMAN.
The works were auctioned last Sunday in Norwood, Johannesburg. The exhibition was opened by guest speaker Dr Carol Benn.
Hirshowitz believes that art mobilises powerful unconscious memories which can transfigure suffering and provide insight and healing. Her work reflects the importance of the body and particularly the female form as inspiration.
Her images communicate her subjective emotions and are a culmination of her life experiences. They reflect her joy of beauty, symmetry and balance over depression, confusion and catastrophe.
Dr Benn said: “Going through the diagnosis of breast cancer is hard, going through the treatment after [the diagnosis] may be even harder. Going through chemotherapy is sometimes like climbing Mount Everest.
“All they [the patients] need is support and help, and a lot of my patients have received support and help from this wonderful organisation. We want people to realise it’s not the diagnosis, it’s the aftercare down the line, it’s walking the road with a friend and someone to hold their hand.”
* DL Link may be contacted at (011) 485-3269 or at info@dllink.co.za