Art, Cancer & Collaboration
2018–2024 · Continuing advocacy
By Erin McGee Ferrell
Erin McGee Ferrell's work with cancer brings together painting, poetry, patient education, scientific collaboration, and advocacy. The projects developed during 2018–2024, a period that included her treatment for breast cancer and melanoma, build on earlier work bringing a practicing artist into healthcare settings. They include the Pirate Crew Paper Dolls, artist residencies at Arizona State University and Columbia University, and contributions to the collaborative exhibition The C Word.
Across these projects, Ferrell works from several perspectives: as an artist, as a collaborator with researchers, and as someone with personal experience of cancer treatment. The resulting work considers how images, shared creative experiences, and conversations can help people communicate about cancer.
Live painting in the chemotherapy treatment room
A 2017 Maine Arts Commission grant supported an investigation into the presence of a working artist in a healthcare environment. In early 2018, Ferrell painted over eight weeks at New England Cancer Specialists in Kennebunk, Maine. The project examined patients' and staff members' responses to watching an artist at work, including the role of conversation and social interaction. The practice's announcement credits support from the Maine Arts Commission and Artist and Craftsmen Supply. New England Cancer Specialists: live-painting project
Working with social psychologist Elizabeth J. Parks-Stamm, Ferrell co-authored Artist Impact: Effects of Live Art on Patients and Staff in an Outpatient Chemotherapy Treatment Environment, published in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing in February 2019. The study reported positive patient responses to the artist's presence and greater social interaction during sessions when the artist engaged in conversation. University of Southern Maine: Artist Impact publication record
Pirate Crew Paper Dolls
The chemotherapy-room research preceded Ferrell's own breast cancer diagnosis. Her 2019 research and education poster traces that transition with the words “Artist becomes patient,” connecting her experience of treatment to the development of the Pirate Crew Paper Dolls.
Ferrell and a team developed the dolls as a breast cancer educational tool: a visual translation of complex medical procedures for newly diagnosed patients. The project became a way to share experience and open conversations about treatment through an accessible, familiar format.
Ferrell presented this work within the arts-in-health community, including the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH)'s annual conference in Boston in September 2019. The paper dolls were also featured by NEWS CENTER Maine and in a 2022 profile published by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. Erin McGee Ferrell: The Art of Cancer Advocacy
2019 poster credits: Erin McGee Ferrell, Elizabeth Parks-Stamm, Robyn Courtois-Colby, and Mary McCusker. The poster credits funding to New England Cancer Specialists and the Maine Arts Commission.
Poetry and the experience of treatment
During these years, Ferrell also created a body of poetry responding to her cancer journey. Her poems appeared in the Pirate Crew Paper Dolls folder and the Ms. Mastectomy breast cancer educational kit, as well as in artwork for The C Word exhibition. Writing and visual art became connected ways to express experiences of diagnosis and treatment and to share them with others.
Collaborating with cancer researchers
After developing Pirate Crew Paper Dolls, Ferrell worked closely with Pamela Winfrey, whose work with the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center at Arizona State University helped introduce her to cancer research and patient advocacy. Winfrey was a driving force in that transition and created both Navigating Cancer with Science and Art (NCSA) and The C Word. Pamela Winfrey's account of these projects
Ferrell's involvement with Arizona State University's cancer research community included patient advocacy, presentations to researchers, and an artist residency in April 2023. Her work connected with Dr. Carlo Maley and the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center. Carlo Maley's ASU profile
In December 2023, she completed an artist residency at Columbia University in New York City, working directly with Dr. Diana Murray at the Center for Cancer Systems Therapeutics (CaST). Their exchange brought Murray into Ferrell's studio and Ferrell into the research environment. Ferrell explored visual communication of scientific ideas, including the use of near-field communication, thermochromic pigments, and fluorescent materials in her art. A further Columbia artist project followed in June 2024. University of New England coverage
In 2022, Ferrell became a founding member of Navigating Cancer with Science and Art (NCSA), an NCI-sponsored working group connecting cancer researchers and artists. NCSA developed from outreach at the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center and became part of outreach at Columbia's Center for Cancer Systems Therapeutics.
Ferrell also created a DREAM-High educational module on Art, Cancer, and Vulnerability, in which each student received a Pirate Crew Paper Dolls set.
The C Word exhibition
Working with Pamela Winfrey, the exhibition's creator, Ferrell helped develop The C Word: Artists, Scientists, and Patients Respond to Cancer and contributed a substantial body of artwork to this collaborative exhibition. The project brought artwork into conversation with cancer research and the experiences surrounding cancer.
Her contributions included Chemotherapy Roller Coaster, a large mixed-media painting following five months of chemotherapy, and Ms. Mastectomy, from the Pirate Crew Paper Dolls. The later exhibition documentation describes more than 40 embedded near-field communication tags in Chemotherapy Roller Coaster, connecting visitors with poetry, videos, interviews, and other cancer-related art.
The exhibition was presented through Arizona State University in Phoenix and at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. At Dartmouth Hitchcock, Marianne Barthel served as the hospital's art curator and director of its Arts and Humanities Program. Selections were also presented at Columbia University in New York City. The Phoenix presentation took place at the 850 Phoenix Biomedical Campus in April 2022, followed by the Dartmouth Hitchcock presentation in 2022–2023. Curator Pamela Winfrey's exhibition account
The exhibition credits acknowledge the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, National Cancer Institute, Cancer Systems Biology Consortium, the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, and the 850 Biomedical Building for helping make the exhibition possible.
Cancer research advocacy
Ferrell's advocacy includes participation in the National Cancer Institute's Physical Sciences–Oncology Network and Cancer Systems Biology Consortium, with contributions as a patient advocate, outreach presenter, and research poster judge. She received a CSBC research poster award in September 2020.
She has served twice as a consumer reviewer for the Department of Defense's Breast Cancer Research Program, within the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs: first in 2021–2022 and again in August–September 2026. In this role, she contributes the perspective of someone affected by cancer to the review of proposed research.
The work continues through CA6: Cancer + Art + Advocacy, which she co-founded in 2024, and through participatory projects such as her September 2026 Ms. Mastectomy paper-doll workshop at Gilda's Club Kentuckiana.
Barbie Has Cancer films, interviews, and coverage
Ferrell's Barbie Has Cancer stop-motion series extends the project's visual storytelling to film. Pirate Crew Paper Dolls presents the five films, which address biopsy and diagnosis, chemotherapy, surgery, reconstruction, and the experience of ongoing treatment.
Visit Erin McGee Ferrell's YouTube channel · Watch the Barbie Has Cancer playlist
| Barbie Has Cancer film | Platform |
|---|---|
| Biopsy and Diagnosis | YouTube |
| Chemotherapy | YouTube |
| Mastectomy Reconstruction: Breast Cancer Education | YouTube |
| The Surgery: Breast Cancer Doll Video | YouTube |
| Chemo Week 16: Potato People | YouTube |
Additional project films document the dolls' development and the earlier chemotherapy-room study.
Television interview: NEWS CENTER Maine, “Buddy to Buddy: Paper Dolls”, 2019. The segment follows Ferrell's use of paper dolls to help women understand experiences surrounding breast cancer treatment.
Podcast interviews:
- Savvy Painter: “Why Art Matters in the Painful Places of Life, with Erin McGee Ferrell”, hosted by Antrese Wood. The conversation covers making art during illness and the relationship between art and healthcare. The published episode outline places the Pirate Crew Paper Dolls discussion at 23:15.
- Bad Right Breast: “Artist Series #3 — Erin's Story,” episode 60, hosted by Laurie Brown Kindred, January 4, 2022. Ferrell discusses her cancer experience and its relationship to her art. Bad Right Breast on Apple Podcasts.
Related coverage: National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, “Erin McGee Ferrell: The Art of Cancer Advocacy”, May 5, 2022.
Research publication
Parks-Stamm, E. J., and Ferrell, E. M. (2019). Artist Impact: Effects of Live Art on Patients and Staff in an Outpatient Chemotherapy Treatment Environment. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 23(1), 92–96. DOI: 10.1188/19.CJON.92-96. Read the research abstract on PubMed.
Selected cancer-related publications
- A Healer While Healing, Maine Sunday Telegram, April 7, 2019.
- National Organization for Arts in Health newsletter, Art in Chemo project feature, November 2018.
- The Book of Arts: Cancer, Gallerium, 2021. Artwork reproduction.
People and institutions
- Marianne Barthel: art curator at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and director of its Arts and Humanities Program during this period.
- Dr. Diana Murray: Ferrell’s direct collaborator for her Columbia University artist residency, at the Center for Cancer Systems Therapeutics. Diana Murray’s NCI biography.
- Pamela Winfrey: creator of NCSA and The C Word, collaborator, and a key influence on Ferrell's introduction to patient advocacy.
- Carlo Maley at Arizona State University and the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center: cancer research collaboration and ASU residency context.
- National Cancer Institute: patient advocacy and research-outreach networks.
- Columbia University Center for Cancer Systems Therapeutics: residency and art/science collaboration.
- Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center: exhibition venue and art/medicine symposium context.
- National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH): arts-in-health community and Boston conference presentation.