Artists Hail Courage of Cancer Patients

During her treatment for vocal cord cancer last year, Cookie Kerxton of Chevy Chase had 28 radiation treatments, in which a beam was aimed at her throat for 10 minutes at a time while a mask covered her face and part of her neck. When it was all over, she asked a medical technician what other patients did with their masks when they finished their therapy.

"He said some leave them here, some people take them, some throw them in front of the car and run over them," Kerxton says.

She had a better idea: Transform those masks into works of art and sell them to raise money for other patients with head and neck cancer. Kerxton rallied more than 100 artists to decorate masks, including her own. (Kerxton was so busy coordinating the project, she didn't have the time.) The result is "Courage Unmasked," an exhibition that debuted last month at American University and is now on view through Oct. 24 at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring.

"Some people said, 'That's so ghoulish. Who would want a radiation mask hanging in their house?' " Kerxton says. But two-thirds of the 109 masks have already sold. Kerxton rounded up masks from Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she was treated, and six other local hospitals.

Radiation masks are white, mesh face molds that look a lot like fencing masks. Rather than protecting the parts of patients' faces that don't need radiation, the masks, which are bolted to the treatment table, serve to immobilize patients during treatments. They fit so tightly that at the end of a session, Kerxton had waffle-print marks on her face.

Clarksville artist Cecelia Battle transformed Kerxton's mask by painting it blue, affixing a beaded necklace and crown and inserting 300 twinkle lights inside to make it glow.

Sculptor June Linowitz of Bethesda so struggled with the project that the plain mask haunted her art studio for weeks before she touched it. ("It was so apparent that it was used for a painful experience," she says.) Finally, she felt inspired. She wove 1,200 feet of twine through the mesh to create a mane and then sculpted and painted the face of a lion. It fetched $2,700 in an auction at AU's Katzen Arts Center on Sept. 9, the top money-maker.

"I wanted something that would be a positive image for the people who had gone through the experience," Linowitz says. "I didn't make a ferocious lion. It's courageous and calm and strong and supportive."

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