Images from the Can You Make Hair for Me? project

As many of you know I’ve been receiving chemotherapy treatments for lymphoma since early this year. As of today, I’m cancer free but will need to undergo a stem cell transplant to in order to increase my chances of keeping cancer at bay.

This will mean an extended absence for me of 6-8 weeks, maybe more, maybe less, beginning October 5. The in-patient treatment consists of one more round of high-dose, preparatory chemotherapy (my 10th!) followed by the stem cell/bone marrow transplant, a hospital stay of approximately 24 days. Once I’m released from the hospital my immune system will be severely compromised and I will be required to stay out of public places and remain at home for several weeks until my system recovers.

I realize that business continues even if I cannot. If you require files from me, please contact me and I can supply them to you.

I expect to be back in the studio sometime after Thanksgiving if all goes well. I appreciate all the support I’ve received from my clients, friends and family during this difficult, yet oddly positive time.

You can support me as I try to bring levity and joy to others going through chemotherapy by following my Can You Make Hair for Me? project on Instagram and Facebook. Participants create “hair” for me which I then style and photograph.

If you’re in Boston, selected images from this project will be on view in the Yawkey Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, 32 Fruit Street, Boston, from October 1-mid January 2020. There is an opening for this project and the work of other featured artists on the 10th floor of the Yawkey Center on October 22 from 5:30-7 pm. I will most likely not be able to attend, but I’m told I will be beamed in from my hospital room (a wonder of the digital age!). I was interviewed about the project by NBC10 Boston. Here’s a link to the full segment.

Again, I thank you for your kind words and overwhelming support during the last year. I’m looking forward to a healthy 2020!

—Eileen