Marcie Shlesinger Beyatte

I am an artist who uses my art for healing. My cancer diagnosis in 2020 ignited a new life and artistic path. Words alone were not how I wanted to share and explain the cancer experience. I want others to see and feel how cancer is. I also wanted to make sense of it all for myself. I switched artistic paths during my illness and began creating and writing in a new realm. Visualizations, then creativity, became the core of my work, which I used to help heal myself.

OK, before I start with this, you need to know something about me. I am usually a very private person, and I really don’t want people knowing my business. I didn’t want to reveal my cancer because of the unease of what people would say or think if they knew. I realize that I don’t have to share anything if I don’t want to, but after some thought, I can’t be silent anymore. I have to tell you about it. I remember like it was yesterday.

By 2015, I had had a breast reduction surgery and 3 breast biopsies. I was only 45 years old. On my regular checkup in late 2015 there was a spot, in the worst possible place. Mid-nipple line against my chest wall. Another biopsy was in my future. However, this time it was not so cut and dried. They needed to go in under my armpit to access this spot, oh, and not go through my chest wall in the process.