How do you find beauty and meaning in the most ordinary things when your life is being pulled away from you by the most extraordinary circumstances?
On May 4, 2013, Cat Gwynn found a sizable lump in her right breast. Ten days later the acclaimed photographer was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer-a disease long feared. Her mother had succumbed to breast cancer after a five-year battle. Now it was Cat's turn to live with it. This meant sitting with mortality, difficult side effects, and every other uncertainty being thrown her way. As the treatment protocol intensified, her immune system became more compromised, requiring limited exposure to the world around her. Cat mapped it out: her day-to-day existence was now reduced to about a ten-mile radius.
Surrendering to this confined reality, Cat decided to engage in a daily practice of seeking out images with her smartphone that would connect her to the immediacy of life. There was no filtering what she found, only a genuine curiosity to see things as they were and how she chose to frame them. Every thing, detail, and day mattered, all inspiration for mindful expression.
Cat didn't set out to make an art project about her experience with cancer, but over time realized it was a conceptual way to show her quest for well-being and willingness to uncover aspects of the world that are normally overlooked. By being present with deep truth, she was opening herself up to her own healing and reclaiming life in the most profound way.
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Wellness is a state of being, no matter the circumstances you're dealt. 10-Mile Radius is a wake up call. A gratitude practice in motion that moves through limitations and becomes a compass back to one's self.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"The Buddha encouraged present time awareness and clear comprehension of all phenomena, both internal and external. In 10-Mile Radius, Cat Gwynn shares her deep and clear views on the immensity of being, the density of existence, the stages of decay and the incredible light of Los Angeles. This book is a meditation. Enjoy."
-Noah Levine, bestselling author, Buddhist teacher, and founder of Against The Stream and Refuge Recovery Centers
"I opened 10-Mile Radius thinking I would learn about an experience with cancer. How wrong. What I found was the magic of the present moment. Words and images weave together to tell many stories, which all lead back to one simple idea: light and darkness are a pair. Whether she meant to or not, Cat Gwynn does nothing less than show us a path to a meaningful life."
-Samantha Dunn, author of Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life
"The role of the artist is to chronicle, witness, interpret and communicate. Gwynn turns a mirror to the viewer with every photograph. Where some see darkness, the work conveys hope, potential, renewal and strength, while revealing the long and arduous road traveled to get there."
-Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director and Curator-Griffin Museum of Photography
"In 10-Mile Radius, Cat Gwynn invites us to join her on an artist's journey of discovery through cancer-a journey she chose to accept as a profound affirmation of life and love. Cat's photographic memoir of what she saw and felt on her way to healing reminds us that, whatever our restrictions, art sets us free and connects us to all life everywhere. Within Cat's 10-Mile Radius, fear becomes hope, sorrow becomes joy, and heart becomes soul."
-Anne Stockwell, author, activist, and founder of Well Again Beyond Cancer
"Explored though heartfelt, unapologetic prose, this inspiring chronicle of hope, honesty and possibility is viewed through an exquisite series of photos taken within a ten-mile radius of where her cancer story unfolds. A fine-spun record of one woman's flowering spirit and the pursuit of meaning and healing through the fusion of language and art."
-David Francis, author of Stray Dog Winter and Wedding Bush Road
"Forget about tragic and happy endings, this is not a book about how the story ends, it is a book about how the story is told. And the photographs. They take my breath away. Reading 10-Mile Radius feels like winning a spiritual lottery.
-Janina Frankel-Yoeli, writer and peace activist
"I love 10-Mile Radius! A multilayered conversation about awareness, it's surprising in its honesty, beautiful in its artistry, serious, funny, and tender all at once. Gwynn's book is proof positive that, though we grow ill, or old, or diminished in a variety of ways, we don't have to be diminished ourselves. Forced to slow down, we focus, we pay attention, and discover the infinite in a grain of sand-or within a 10-mile radius of home."
-Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander, Paint it Black, and The Revolution of Marina M.
"The line leading into Cat Gwynn's remarkable 10-Mile Radius, `The urgency of life becomes a beautifully sharp lens,' sets a poetic tone for this superb, unique symphony of both words and images. Speaking and shooting from within the belly of the beast, but able to step outside her personal narrative to speak of universal emotions with a clear lens and a clear pen, Gwynn has given us a gift for the ages: an original voice and an original eye, combining to take us on a very original-and thought provoking-journey."
-Peter Richmond, author of The Glory Game, My Father's War, and Badasses
"Opening Cat Gwynn's 10-Mile Radius I soon had my own favorite images. But by the last page it was the magnificent yet clean gesture of the entire collection that made me think `O, help me learn to see the world this way!'"
-Mary Rakow, author of This Is Why I Came
"10-Mile Radius shows us all how to see with our hearts. Cat teaches us that witnessing life is the same as loving it, no matter what it presents to us. This gorgeous book is a primer to remind us that beauty is always available in every moment."
-Kelly Carlin, performer and author of A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George
"As a breast cancer survivor myself, and also part of Cat's heath care team, I appreciate her willingness to look deeply within all the while opening her eyes and heart to the world around her as a healthy way to interpret the unknown. A must read for those who seek to understand the art of healing."
-Sherry Goldman, Nurse Practitioner, Saul and Joyce Brandman Breast Center, Cedars-Sinai
"10-Mile Radius provides an exceptional template for finding meaning in the face of profound uncertainty. The book inspires through photographs and text to appreciate small moments, traces of humanity, and elegance in the ordinary through Cat's remarkable eyes."
-Aline Smithson, photographer, founder and editor of Lenscratch, a daily journal of contemporary photography
"What a spectacular work combining magnificent photos with heart expanding text!"
-Dorothy Dai-En Friedman, Sensei at Ocean Zendo and the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
"As Cat painstakingly persevered though surgeries, debilitating treatments and recovery, how easy it could have been to close down and give in to the allures of self-numbing or self-pity. Instead she chose to embrace the ordeal, leveraging her aesthetic skills and a profound spiritual acceptance to transform the confined spaces of her experience into page after page of emotionally resonant images."
-Josh Korda, writer and Buddhist teacher NYC Dharma Punx and New York Insight Meditation Center
"Cat Gwynn's glorious book shows us how to passionately and deeply love a world in which pain is a part."
-Kris Carr, best-selling author, wellness advocate, and cancer thriver
Cat Gwynn was educated in photography, film, and fine arts at Otis- Parsons Art Institute, and has completed numerous master workshops with such esteemed artists as Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Peter Witkin, and Barbara Kruger. Her artwork is collected and exhibited in international galleries and museums including the Lishui Museum of Photography in China, The Drawing Center in New York City, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, and is sold through the Susan Spiritus Gallery. She has lectured at numerous institutions including Otis College of Art and Design, New York University, and Art Center College of Design.
Cat's images have appeared on the cover of Artweek, and in numerous other publications including Artforum, Newsweek, and Texas Monthly. She is also a seasoned lifestyle and portrait photographer whose images have sold through Corbis and Getty Images for nearly twenty years. Her commercial clients include Apple Computers, Starwood Resorts, Discovery Communications, and T-Mobile. In addition, Cat has gifted her talents photographing pediatric patients for Flashes of Hope, a volunteer organization focused solely on funding research for children's cancer.
Gathering the tools and techniques she discovered along her healing path, Cat developed 10-Mile Radius: Creating a Personal Map for Wellness, a powerful transformative recovery program which marries art-making into a daily mindfulness practice. She teaches the program at recovery and wellness centers, working with patients to co-facilitate a shift in their personal narrative. The 10-Mile Radius program is soon to expand into larger healthcare facilities.
