ROAR atc

     Sometimes people tell me how strong I am to deal with this cancer, but I don't think anyone starts out that way. It's like the cowardly Lion in the 'wizard of Oz'. At the beginning you are terrified and you feel powerless, but you face it anyway to protect the people you love, and you grow stronger over time. With many types of cancer, 5 years is the magic number where you are cured and the checkups stop. Because ACC grows slowly, there is no magic number. My doctors didn't know how long they would need to follow me, so the checkups continue year after year.

      At first it was hard, I was convinced it would be back, but it didn't and life moved on. The CT scan and broncs became about as scary as a teeth cleaning. It was nothing, until after 9 years it became something. The scan showed a metastasis in my left lung. So now we start over again, scans every 3 to 4 months. There is no chemotherapy for this, so we can't go after those microscopic cells we know at there, until they grow large enough to become tumors. This is part of my life, but it doesn't have to take over. The visible metastasis was treated with cyberknife. it shrunk, so now there is only a scar within my lung. I'm having CT scans every 3-4 months, and I'm trying to get back to normal life. I have a husband and kids who need me, and I need them. They give me something to focus on today instead of worrying about the future.


     I'm going to be adding artist trading cards (ATCs) of my own for this project, as well as cards that i collect. The standard baseball card size, makes them fun to do without a lot of commitment. I've also found it a good way to try ideas that are different from my usual style. i keep a bunch of blank cards in my purse for when when stuck waiting at the doctors office, or picking up kids and have the time to doodle.  you can buy precut cards, but with a paper cutter, its easy to cut them yourself. For this one, I drew a grid on 8 1/2 by 11 watercolor paper, then randomly painted the individual squares.

After they dried, I cut them apart, and tucked them into an envelope until I was ready to use them.  When I was ready to start my lion card,  I flipped through my predone backgrounds, and this one just fit with the profile of a lion. so i sketched it out in pencil till i was happy with it, then traced over it in black ink.,

 I did a second one facing forward in the same technique. which one should go into the project?