Friday 4 June – Saturday 26 June

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I grew up in Hobart and graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Arts (Japanese) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Printmaking). About a year and a half after finishing university I had a seizure, which led to the discovery of my brain tumour.

My tumour provided me with a wealth of experience for my art to draw upon. But there was one hurdle I struggled with. I wasn’t able to find a way to express my feeling about having a tumour in visual form, to exorcise my existential dread from my mind and onto the page in a way that was cathartic and healing. Then one night it came to me. I would make a comic about my brain cancer experience. I would apply my art and teaching background, and my sense of humour, to develop and share a digital art series of my responses to my diagnosis, including the humour to be found despite the darkness that I sometimes felt.

I made my tumour a relatable character, bereft of any malicious intent but drawn into the same maelstrom of confusion I face. I gave my tumour form and substance, a face and a voice. And eventually a name, Crowley.

Working in the digital format has built upon my painting and printmaking experience and challenged me to develop my artistic expression in this format. My initial Tumour Humour work was in black and white, but more recent works in the series use colour. In this, the works illustrate my development as a digital artist.

While the works track personal experience, they confront more universal themes such as medical treatment, dealing with relationships, coping with emotional stress, other people’s reactions to a person with cancer, the health impacts of a cancer diagnosis and facing death.

Image: Jai Sutton-Bassett, Haven’t Grown