Phelps reflects on childhood through art
For many, receiving the news that you only have a few weeks to live before the age of five can alter your life forever, and for senior art major Elizabeth Phelps, it did just that.
At the age of four, Phelps was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma and was only given weeks to live.
Lauren Davidson | gcsunade.comPhelps held her senior art exhibit reception April 26 at Blackbird Coffee. There she gave a speech on her artwork while allowing her professors and fellow classmakes to ask questions.
According to the Rhode Island Cancer Council’s website, patients with stage four neuroblastoma over the age of one only have a cure rate of ten to 40 percent.
Today, Phelps is 22 years old and is previewing her senior art show, “Hope Lives On,” at Blackbird Café until April 30.
Phelps says that she always remembered doing some kind of art throughout childhood.
“I’ve always grown up doing art,” Phelps said. “I even remember doing some art while I was in the hospital.”
While she has always appreciated and enjoyed doing art, she didn’t know if this is what she wanted to do with her life coming into college.
“I came here and originally wanted to be a pre-nursing major,” Phelps said. “I was just naïve coming to college. I didn’t know what was out there for an art major.”
The strength that Phelps has in order to make it through everything like doctor visits, getting through school and just life in general didn’t just come from within.
“When I was in the hospital I was with my mom all the time since my dad had to work to help pay for all the medical bills,” Phelps said.
Even today, Phelps still needs the help of her mother.
“Even though I’m 22, it’s still difficult to handle all my doctors visits without my mom,” Phelps said.
Her time in the hospital has given her a new sense of what she wants to do with her life as well.
“I want to become a child life specialist after I graduate,” Phelps said. “They are there to help people who were like I was. I know how it feels to be in the hospital because I’ve been there as a child. I can help them cope.”
Her friends and teachers know how much. Her advisor and associate art professor Valerie Aranda is aware that the year long process of senior exhibits can be difficult for many.
“The process they go through with their senior capstone is a very difficult one. There is a lot of questions and many critiques,” Aranda said.
Aranda expressed that she has the same hope for all her students in their senior capstone process.
“My hope is always that the students will find something that they are very connected to and something that is very meaningful to them and that they are passionate about,” Aranda said. “I think she (Phelps) really found a way to bring all of her interests together, and I think it made her stronger.”
Others deeply believe that her art has given her a way to communicate her past struggle with cancer.
“I know that her show has given her a new way of expressing her emotions and offers a new outlet for her feelings about cancer,” said senior art major Julia Allen, who helped Phelps hang her show in Blackbird.“I have been friends with Elizabeth for a few years and this past summer we went on a study abroad together to Waterford, Ireland. I know the person that she is, the heart she has, and I am inspired by the strength she gives off.”
No matter what Phelps does with her life, Aranda believes the purpose of her art was to galvanize anyone who comes in to contact with it.
“I also think her hope is to inspire other artists or other people who are going through cancer or other difficult situations,” Aranda said.
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