I Can No Longer Paint

Thanks to cancer, I’ve lost some functionality in my right hand

Winter Sunset — original watercolor by Shefali O’Hara

After my first bout with cancer back in 2004, I was no longer able to work as an engineer. I was bedridden during treatment and very weak after. Slowly I started to heal, but I got tired very quickly. On good days, I could manage to do a few things but then I would need to rest.

I was pretty depressed, but then my husband at the time bought me an art class. It was just a three-hour session in a local park, but it inspired me to start painting. It was something I could do that helped me work through my emotions and be creative without wearing me out. It became my therapy.

Below is one of my first paintings:

Best Friends — original watercolor by Shefali O’Hara

After my mastectomy in 2017, when I had a second bout with cancer, I painted the image shown below. I was inspired by another painting I had seen but then painted from my own heart.

Because of how deeply cancer had invaded my body, I was left with a hole where my breast had been. In the painting, I put a starfish where my breast used to be as this symbolism, as well as that of the moon, had meaning to me.