Artist: Death Nurse
Title: Jessica Kimbrough
Description: One of a kind Keep A Breast cast sculpture
Year created: 2020
Medium: Plaster base and artist materials
Edition: 1 of 1
Height (inches): 11
Width (inches): 12
Depth (inches): 10
Signed by the artist
Signed Area: back
Description of piece:
One of a kind Keep A Breast cast of Jessica Kimbrough painted by Death Nurse.
Artist bio:
BUST: JESSICA KIMBROUGH "As a breast cancer survivor, I can’t think of any better way to celebrate my good health than to be cast by Shaney jo and take part in this amazing project. When I removed my shirt to be cast, I felt love and support for my new body in a way that can never truly be expressed. If Keep A Breast helps any other woman feel the way I did then they have been successful in every way."
ARTIST: DEATH NURSE "I painted the cast of my mother's breasts, who is a breast cancer survivor. I've never questioned the strength of my mom - she has shown it to me through love and care, through inevitable mother-daughter wars, through doing headstands in cocktail dresses, through caring for a chronically ill child. But what was revealed to me through her cancer diagnosis was something so powerful: resilience. My mom has fought for women's rights and bodies - and raised me to do the same. She has been dedicated to organizations that provide mammograms to women from all socioeconomic backgrounds. But in her diagnosis, the fight became personal. I watched her never waver in that resilience and kicking cancer's ass with grace and power. I painted birds for my mama when I was in elementary school, and the birds still hang in her bedroom. She loves birds, and it doesn't surprise me - she loves to travel, loves to nurture, is independent, and has wings of her own. I had to draw a new bird for her as the centerpiece of the cast. Although my mother was incredibly lucky in her diagnosis and recovery, the blackbird on the cast is for when she felt lost, when she felt terror, and for the others who lost their fight in this."
"I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after." - Wallace Stevens