Girl Plays in Radioactive Dirt

"Young Linda"

“It all started out with a back ache,” said my Aunt and Godmother, Linda Beketa. Earlier this year she went to the doctor for back pain and through a series of tests discovered she had lung cancer, a tumor on her kidney and brain and fractured vertebrae caused by bone cancer. Linda went through a series of treatments including heavy rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that weakened her body and did little to fight the cancer. Twelve weeks after her diagnosis she died on Saturday April 9, 2011. Shortly after her funeral I received an email from my mother explaining that a nuclear test was launched in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 25, 1953, only 65 miles from where my Aunt lived. Linda, and her parents, saw the mushroom cloud and for the next 18 months one-year-old Linda played outside in what could very well be radioactive soil. My Aunt had cancer twice in her lifetime; the first was cervical cancer in her late thirties and lung, kidney, bone and brain cancer in her late fifties. This series of events inspired me to produce “Girl Plays in Radioactive Dirt.” Each piece in the series references a specific type of cancer my Aunt experienced and expresses the power cancer has to hide, invade and destroy. The work references the atomic age through the color palette which was inspired by the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, an educational toy for children, produced in 1951 and 1952 that included radioactive material (this toy was pulled from the shelves after its first year in production). Most of the artwork titles were taken from what Linda or her family and friends said on Linda Beketa’s Care Pages (a blog that connects family and friends during a health challenge).

“Girl Plays in Radioactive Dirt” is dedicated to Linda Beketa; 20% of all sales from the show will be donated to the American Cancer Society in her name.