This photo of my wife Paula K. Rudd, of 27 years, circa 2016, was taken through the side-glass window of our car on a rainy afternoon. Her hair is sprouting after completing stage 4 breast cancer chemo regime, a mastectomy, a lymphadenectomy of 14 nodes, 12-week radiation, and reconstruction surgery (twice). She survives today. Even as recently as 2020, she was diagnosed with a metastasized reoccurance near her bladder. 9-months of bilateral nephrostomy tubes, and another successful response to treatment. Her hair is sprouting again.
This work combines references to: the title of the piece is from a scene in “2001 – A Space Odyssey”, a quote “We’re made of star stuff” by Carl Sagan, and iconography religious paintings from the middle ages of saints with halos. Like the French “Realists” of the 1800’s, questioning the “nobility of subject matter worthy of creation”; Truth, Veritas, raw, unadorned, needs no approval. Bestowing sainthood is no longer reserved to the priestly class.