Wednesday, January 4, 2017

A Tribute to Cheryl Braganza

"For the last twelve years, while our mother fought bone cancer, a handwritten quote from Goethe has rested on top of her easel: "Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time."

Little did we know how much she would take this to heart. In the last 5 years, she produced more artwork and published more writing than she ever produced in the previous 20 years. When asked why, she answered "I'm in a race against time. I have so much to say and so much more to bring into the world..." And her effect on people across the world is evident in the hundreds and thousands of awe-inspiring emails she got from fans of her work everywhere.

She lived longer than anyone in the history of medicine with myeloma cancer in the brain, and refused painkillers because she didn't want her senses affected. All she wanted was to experience every moment in living color until her last breath.

Our mother believed that in order to enjoy true happiness, she should live each moment as if it were her last. Today will never return. We may speak of the past or of the future, but the only reality we have is that of the present instant. Confronting the reality of death actually enabled her to bring forth unlimited creativity, courage and joy into each moment of her life. The more broken her body became over the years, the more she painted soaring images of birds, and butterflies, and dancing women. And even when the cancer paralyzed her body, she painted tapestries of colour and love with her face, her voice and her mind.

She died peacefully in her sleep this morning after seeing her three children; her soul soaring to the beautiful places reflected in her art. We could not have wished for a more beautiful and meaningful farewell." - a tribute by Cheryl's son Miguel on December 16th, 2016. There is a wonderful link to various aspects of Cheryl's life, including her life story, art activism and cancer here.

Don't miss her recollections on the Partition of India either.

And, of course, her there is her tremendous art - which I will end with.  These are some of my very favorite Cheryl Braganza paintings.

You can get lost looking at Cheryl's website - there are so many amazing paintings.

Rest in Peace - and in Power - beloved artist, writer, mother, friend, visionary and warrior.

Posted by Trista Hendren at 3:52 AM Let's change this! Mother-Daughter HERstory How to do a HERstory project “Men develop ideas and systems of explanation by absorbing past knowledge and critiquing and superseding it. Women, ignorant of their own history [do] not know what women before them had thought and taught. So generation after generation, they [struggle] for insights others had already had before them, [resulting in] the constant inventing of the wheel.” – Gerda Lerner How YOU can help! Call for Contributors

We need all the help we can get! All voices are welcome, from all backgrounds, ages and parts of the world.

We are specifically interested in women that are not as well known in current school HIStory curriculum.

What Sheroes would you like to learn about? Nominate your she-roe Shocking Fact: Find your local femininst bookstore "The first time I read a book by a Latina author was in college. The wind in my chest stood up. It had been 18 long years of text books filled with everything but me. For the first time my body knew a world that could hold it. See, the quickest way to silence a mouth is to treat it as if none had come before." - Denice Froham
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