In 2022, Deborah Tomlin was diagnosed with breast cancer from a routine mammogram. She underwent treatment, which consisted of three different surgeries including a bilateral mastectomy. In SUTRA, Tomlin chooses to paint her scars and unfamiliar body and to examine the healing process through her art. As Audre Lorde expresses, in The Cancer Journals, “Any woman who has had a breast removed because of cancer knows she does not feel the same. But we are allowed no psychic time or space to examine what our true feelings are, to make them our own. With quick cosmetic reassurance, we are told that our feelings are not important, our appearance is all, the sum total of self.”

The title SUTRA in sanskrit means to stitch, to mend, to bring together, to heal. This body of work drew Tomlin to a more abstract approach to painting and drawing including the layering of collage materials and stitching directly on the canvas. Text based on comments by doctors and friends during her treatment is also significant to this work. Painting on top of overflowing and overlapping text expresses Tomlin’s grief and anger. Stitching directly on the canvas with yarn and thread reframes her sutures and scars through the lens of darning and mending, traditionally women’s work, transforming an object ripped and torn into a material stronger and more beautiful by the act of repair.

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