This week I ahve been busily creating some pieces for an Art Auction to benefit a wonderful local artist who is in the middle of a massive battle against a very aggressive brain cancer. Tracey is in her mid forties and took herself to the Emergency Room this past early summer with what was thought to be a bad migraine. Instead it was determined that she had three tumors growing in her brain. She was taken to surgery and the tumors were removed- thank goodness they were able to get to them and disks saturated with chemotherapeutic drugs were placed at the tumor sites. Then the real battle began, 6 weeks of daily radiation treatments and daily doses of Chemo. Tracey is incredibly fit and active and a very gifted artist and a wonderful person. She is married to a Marine and lives in Fredericksburg. Women Tracey's age are not supposed to be afflicted by this sort of Brain Cancer. Now Tracey is continuing her fight down at Duke University Medical School where she has been enrolled in the Brain Cancer Program for this specific type of Cancer. Tracey is very connected to the arts Community if Fredericksburg and several of her closest friends are arranging an Arts Auction to help the Clarks deal with the mounting costs associated with traveling back and forth to Duke for further tests and treatments. As Mr Clarke works for the US Marines, they are blessed with good health coverage.
I have met Tracey three times, but she made a large impact on my life as an artist and as a very open and caring woman. She was a featured artist at FCCA in the Members Gallery last June. As I am the Coordinator of events in the Members Gallery, it was my pleasure to meet with her during the hanging of her exhibit and to introduce her to my daughter as her work depicting animals is something that Becca is fascinated by. Tracey is completely self taught. She spent several moments talking with Becca and explaining how very important it is to stick with something and to constantly practive to achieve ones goals. to learn more about Tracey and to see her incredible art you can go to here blog, here.
This is a small example of the amazing work that Tracey does. this is one of the birds that was on for sale at Tracey's June Show at FCCA. She also had a Black Capped Chickadee that I was in love with but someone else beat me to it!Now we are preparing for the Art Auction the will take place on Saturday November 5th from 4-6pm at Tracey's church New City Fellowship. I hope that I will see many of my local friends at the auction, artists or not!!
The hand felted and beaded Christmas Ornaments at the top of this post will also be included in the Auction but my major effort has been concentrated in creating this special piece. To create this collaged necklace, I have used a vintage name plate fitted with some of my fabric paper domed with resin, as a focal .
I have combined fresh water pearls, hand made Tyvek beads, tiny brass bird figures, a Brazilian opal, some lavender crystals, some hand dyed silk ribbons and a tiny charm printed with the word Hope. The chains that I use were gathered from vintage jewelry and a very old watch chain.
After finishing this piece I realized that it speaks strongly piece of the quote by Emily Dickinson about hope,.
- “Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all"
I have just discovered that Tracey also maintains a blog about animals titled "Not One Sparrow". I have made this piece in honor of Tracey and all that she is going through and her immense compassion for all of God's creatures. I hope that someone will love it as much and be generous with their contributions to Tracey's fight for her life.
Tracey and her husband Craig ,and least importantly I, would ask that you all include Tracey in your thoughts and prayers for a strong and decisive victory against this insidious cancer.
