COLUMBUS, Ohio– Columbus College of Art and Design Professor Julie Abijanac survived a bout of cancer, and now she’s telling about it uniquely through art.
- Diagnosed almost 15 years ago with Hodgkins Lymphoma
- She's been creating art since she was a kid and learned from her mother
- Learning new forms of art using new materials was scary but Abijanac says it made her better
As an artist, Julie Abijanac says she never imagined that she would have to reinvent herself. But in doing so, she says she’s become better. Stringing one red bead at a time and sewing them onto balls of pantyhose takes Abijanac hours.
The associate professor is trying to complete a portion of a much larger work called Cell Mutation. Abijanac started creating art like this more than a decade ago after being diagnosed with stage two Hodgkins Lymphoma. She says, “You’re always kind of scared making changes.” She used to work with oils, metals, and paint, but stopped to avoid the toxic impact. She adds, “Not only was I thinking about oh my God, how am I gonna go through this whole thing, but then the other thing was how am I gonna be a maker now?”
Doing that meant getting a new game plan, a plan that would require her to reinvent herself as an artist. Facing her fears, she started using yarn and learned how to crochet, which became a form of therapy while she tried to figure how to move forward. That led her to create a piece called Self Portrait that’s now on display at the James Art Gallery, in which she crocheted balls of mohair. It depicts her battle with cancer. One oval is dark, and the other is lighter in color. She says, “The idea is that the first self-portrait is me sick. The self-portrait next to it is myself getting better.”
Pointing out the different types of paper and glue used to make another piece, Abinijac says as she went through chemotherapy and learned more about the disease, it was easy for her to design based on the shapes of cancer seen under the microscope. She says, “You kind of see the natural organism and the design elements that this disease kind of is taking on.” Abijanac says all of her pieces connect together including the one made of glass beads and stuffed pantyhose that she still needs to complete.
She’s been cancer-free now for about ten years but says having to go on the journey of reinventing herself through art has made her a better teacher and artist who can now create work she feels is honest. She says before she was more focused on making a name for herself as an artist. Today, it’s more about building relationships and creating in response to things that are happening.
Her art, which is a part of the Reflect, Refocus, Renew show, can be seen at the James Art Gallery until December 19th.