At 17 years old Jessica Howard was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Terrified, she was thrown into a whirlwind of tests and toxins. It all culminated into a seven-hour surgery that left her unable to speak or walk for days.
She still recalls in vivid detail the struggle to regain her art, to learn to draw again. “It was like drawing backwards. I needed to find my lines again”, she explains. “To rediscover the strength in my lines. Each line needed to be re-imagined, made whole again.”
Lightning would strike again nearly 12 years later. Jessica married her best friend and within 2 years they expected their first child. After 9 months of pregnancy, they lost their baby. Their loss was at times unbearable and was some of their darkest hours. While grieving for their son, Jessica discovered a lump in her neck, which turned out to be another malignant tumor in her thyroid.
Throughout it all, she found solace in her art. Turning to her gift as a comfort. A way to express her pain and anguish. Today, years later, she is whole. Married, with two healthy boys, she is now cancer free and the lines on her pieces are both bold and clear. Each one a reflection of the treasures she hunted for as a child on the bucolic North Shore of Long Island in those years before the storm, life affirming memories of her strength. The tree limbs, the blades of grass, the lonesomeness of dead ocean life, even the breath of the waves and grains of sand.