During the summer of 2020, I received an email from a friend and uncle-figure Thomas Mann with the subject line “Ketch-up.”
He shared that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 prostate cancer and that he would be undergoing treatment from January through March of 2021 at MD Anderson in Houston. While he would be receiving some of the best treatment available, it would be an intense medical journey.
Tom has been an important figure in my life since I was a baby. I apprenticed with him as a jeweler when I was 16 and when I moved to New Orleans for college in 2010, he became an even more central figure in my life. He has been an artistic mentor since I was a child so when he asked for some help setting up his space in Houston and working on some jewelry projects, I wanted to help. At the time, I was working for the Texas Senate, which required daily Covid testing and the office I was working for was incredibly Covid cautious. There aren’t many moments in life where we’re asked to help a friend or family member in that way, and I was lucky to be in a position to safely help Tom.
From January through March, I decided to drive to Houston each weekend to make jewelry with Tom and photograph his experience of going through cancer treatment. This was during the height of the pandemic before vaccines were readily available so most weeks, I would be the only person Tom would engage with face to face outside of his care team.
But what initially started as an opportunity to help a friend turned into an artistically transformative experience for both of us.
I’d arrive at Tom’s every weekend, usually to a mountain of dishes, scattered to-do lists, and a joyous “Honey! I’m hoooome!” from Tom as he’d come in after his final treatment of the week. After I’d cleaned the kitchen, we’d cook up the most extravagant meal we could muster and then sit with each other and talk about what was on our minds—which was usually quite a bit during the first quarter of 2021!
I look forward to sharing more about this work in the coming months. I’ve been keeping this project to myself for almost a year at this point and I’m really excited to finally be sharing it.
Here’s a wider selection of the work. Feel free to reach out to let me know what you think!
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Wearing the necklace my dad made me as my mom cuts my hair after my first round of chemotherapy.
In a twist of fate, on January 4th as the “When you realize 2022 is pronounced Twenty Twenty Too” memes were still piping hot, and six weeks before my 30th birthday, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. It has been a strange experience going from focusing on creating an intimate body of work about someone else’s experience with cancer to going through treatment myself. I’ve been forced to relearn lessons I thought I had learned through Tom’s journey.
As I’ve undergone surgery followed by chemotherapy, Being Tom has taken on even more significance for me personally which is why I’m choosing to share it now.
I’m happy to say that chemotherapy is very effective at targeting my specific cancer, which is highly curable at the stage I caught it at. I recently finished my third of four rounds of chemo. While treatment has certainly been challenging, the light at the end of the tunnel is the incredible life I get to continue living.
I’m so lucky to be surrounded by such a supportive group of friends, my girlfriend Kendall, and my mom Maria who have all been with me every step of the way in Austin. I’m also exceptionally grateful for the friends and family who check in on me every day from outside of Texas.
As I make this final push to what I hope and expect to be the end of my treatment, it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the things that I’m grateful for.
I’m so lucky to make a living from what I’m most passionate about and deeply appreciate everyone who has been following my work, especially over the last year. I feel very creatively energized but haven’t been able to create as much as I would have wanted to since January. I’m excited for that energy to push me forward. More to come soon!