THUNDER BAY – Though she had beaten breast cancer, Michelle Blackburn still felt she needed something to move past the disease.
That’s how The Butterfly Story was born.
The project began when Blackburn and her friend, artist Chantal Hughes (Ouellette), began to discuss a way to reinvent the physical reminders from into something beautiful. Hughes used the scars from the two mastectomies to paint butterflies as symbols of strength and hope on Blackburn’s body.
It allows survivors to use their bodies to become pieces of art using personal symbols and images to tell their own stories.
“When you see the pictures you can’t tell there are scars there. You can’t see them. I wanted people to see there’s life after cancer,” Blackburn said.
“I think it did a lot for my body image and my self-image to be able to look back and see the pictures…Now that the images are on display it’s a real photo shoot and there are so many women who have had that experience.”
Once Blackburn, who was diagnosed five years ago at the age of 28, realized the inspiration and positive impact the painting and photos had for her she wanted to share it with others. Through word of mouth, as well as the Thunder Bay Breast Cancer Support Group, more than 20 breast cancer survivors eagerly volunteered for the transformation.
The full set of 20 images will be unveiled on Sept. 25 during The Butterfly Story Gala, which will be held at the Victoria Inn.
For Hughes, getting to be involved and surrounded by perseverance was a special experience.
“It gets me teary-eyed. I get goosebumps hearing their stories and how I made them feel,” she said. “It’s their most vulnerable time and having them fully exposed and disrobe for me to paint them, they definitely had to open themselves up fully to me. That is an honour to have those survivors let me paint them at their most vulnerable time.”
Funds raised from the gala will go to the Northern Cancer Fund, which will be donated to the Thunder Bay Breast Cancer Support Group to help survivors.
“Survivorship is becoming a huge aspect. We’re really hoping with these funds raised we can send women to conferences, we can help people if they want to go to courses, if we want to have a speaker come to Thunder Bay as well as helping women afford prosthetics,” Blackburn said.
Tickets for the gala, which starts at 6:15 p.m., are $75 each and are available at the foundation office of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre or online through Keynote Events.
