tumour ballet

“What do my tumours look like?” I asked my surgeon after I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. I had the urge to see images, but somehow the files on the computer wouldn’t open. I started filling this void by drawing my own imagery. In December 2023, while researching breast cancer tumour appearances, I connected with a retired surgeon who shared his medical knowledge. From there, my tumour drawings began to take shape.

tumour ballet received a Merit Award at the Parkin Drawing Prize 2024.

Justin Paton, Judge of the 2024 Parkin Drawing Prize, shared these thoughts on my work:
Nela Fletcher, because she too draws you into an unsettling internal world. Her Tumour Ballet reckons artistically with the experience of breast cancer. These frightening growths dance between the beautiful and the terrible. The patient precision of Fletcher’s lines has an emotional payoff: it suggests the control required to calmly picture something that’s out to hurt you.

tumour ballet
2024
ink on paper
540x700 mm