Art for a cause

If you subscribe to my newsletter or follow my Facebook page, you may already know that my husband’s leukemia has recently returned. The first time he was sick, in 2013, I really struggled to keep making art during his treatment and recovery. This time around, I am trying to make art a priority as much as possible. I am sneaking in short sessions in the studio whenever I can, while still fulfilling the role of caregiver to the best of my ability.

I’m keeping myself motivated with a pledge to donate at least 10% of all my art sales through the end of 2016 to charities which serve blood cancer patients (through research, stem cell donor registries, and other support). If you’d like to see what work I have available, check out my online shop.

So far I’ve raised almost £500 through sales and other donations, which feels amazing and makes me want to keep going. Scott and I are reading up on various charities to decide how the funds will be split. Some will definitely go to DKMS to help with the costs of registering new potential donors (myself and many friends included).

We also want to direct some of the donation towards whichever registry managed to find Scott’s donor – so far we have been told that a match has indeed been found for him (a huge relief), but we don’t have any more details yet. Once we find out, I’ll share them in a future update.

Scott will be receiving his transplant in Glasgow, where he’ll be in hospital for at least four weeks (and possibly much longer). I’m currently trying to figure out what type of art I want to make while there in my temporary accommodation. What supplies should I bring along? What subjects could I tackle?