We were lucky to catch up with Denise Weyhrich recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Denise, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

This current period of life had resulted in a body of artworks that are working through cancer, yet honestly speaking of commemorations, struggles, thanksgiving. Hopefully I am relatable, and speaking with compassion and hope for healing. Surviving stage 4 ovarian cancer (2016 I was given a month to live) I have found great joy in living, creating and being with others rejoicing in each moment. The life that has been granted to me is only by a truckload of miracles of God with the greatest of medical developments and the support of our incredible friends. My artwork “time to tear out, time to mend” is where I find life, a walk of trust yet keep willing to attack the invader of cancer despite the cost, fight on and rejoice in the life that we have.

Focusing on all these ‘incredibles’ of these past years, my artworks have drawn me into narratives. These stories come out in ways I never could imagine, yet the artworks result from the journey of fighting reoccurring inoperable cancer. Yet for my body the impossible suddenly becomes operable: doctors risking their reputations to save my life; the hopelessness is followed by immediate surgeries; new discoveries of chemo pills just for me; experimental infusion chemotherapy… It has been a wild ride that has me taking daily evening and morning photos of chemo pills in situ, collecting hospital bands and festooning them, marking time and accessing the path with thanksgiving with interactive art, collages, installations, paperworks…

Just a couple of weeks ago I was suddenly offered a solo exhibit at the She/They Gallery Santora Arts Building in Santa Ana, CA. Having only 4 days to prepare and conceptualize this recent exhibit, I had a bit of a personal epiphany. I became aware that the overwhelming central concept for my artworks has been out of a longing for “home.” The exhibit is titled Home3 (i.e. the third power.) I have been dealing with finding home on this earth, homelike peace in my heart, yet coming to grips with the reality of death and hope of heaven. It is a lot to take in, but important in the process of fighting/treating/recovering and living with cancer.

For this exhibit I jumped to complete a 4 year installation art of three curtain panels of the chemo/Rubraca pills twice daily photos. Still for the past year I have been on traditional infusion chemo needed to put the project aside. “The curtains parted” these curtains are pulled aside to reveal three panels as calendar of my chemo pills 2 ½ years that include 42 photos, 81 photos and 81 x 9=729 photos. Each photo, each day taken twice daily as swallowing the dose as thanksgiving for the day. Not wanting to repeat myself, yet this daily routine first became an interactive installation incorporating 16 decks of 52 playing cards placed of a poker table, called “Rubraca, to life.” Complete with jokers in the deck!

Meaningful projects always keep me going, and that process becomes more meaningful each time!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

BA, Art CSULB; BFA, Graphic Design CSULB; MFA Advertising Design Syracuse University deniseweyhrich.com
Perhaps I am happy artistic chameleon with a radial love for all forms of art making, as my enthusiastic joy of life precedes me.
Life has it’s twists and turns, which can be exciting. Growing up in an amazing home it was natural to be an artist. So as a freshman at CSULB I studied to be an art teacher, yet that turned into becoming a graphic designer, then turned to advertising and packaging designer, then professor and installation artists, then as a retired professor turned curator. As a curator with my best friend we co-founded SEEDS Fine Art Exhibits after I “medically retired” from 24 years of teaching. Growing up serving nonprofits in outreach, I was raised with a mission to make the world a better place and pursue problem solving, wither that be in community or as an individual in all aspects of life. Money never really mattered to me, as it is about people and their needs. I never will retired as I love the balancing curatorial passions with my own fine art installations, that that are seen worldwide.

Since 2003 I am the co-curator of SEEDS Fine Art Exhibits, a nonprofit that transforms galleries into sacred spaces with conceptual exhibits while advocating for artists of all media. During Covid we founded our Full Circle Gallery for two and a half years, within a dual purpose thrift store that serves the Youth Centers of Orange. Having just published our 20 year history book “Epitaphs-what dreams may come,” this labor of love is designed by my co-curator Cindi Rhodes. This conceptual exhibition catalogue asks the question of “what artwork would be your epitaph?”

As professor of Graphic Design BFA program at Chapman University I was the founding professor, administrating and teaching. As professor my tenure research projects developed into ceramic and mixed media art installations based on “Portraits of Faith.” These incorporated gravestone markers gathered on site throughout the U.S. and United Kingdom. In 2000 I started creating metaphorical installations by repurposing found objects that represent a life well lived.

As a miraculous survivor from stage 4 ovarian cancer, West Nile Virus encephalitis, type 1 diabetes, and multiple liver surgeries… faith, hope and God’s medical miracles keep me going to support and care for others. Never having met a stranger, my greatest joy is people, the arts, and talking about what really matters to them.

seedsfineart.org

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Trust your instincts. You probably do not realize how capable you are.
Your mistakes really do teach you more than success,
but you have to allow yourself to make mistakes to learn from them.
Your mistakes do not reflect on your true value.
Trust your instincts, research well and trust yourself.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The old question of: “is this worth the test of time” is a classic, yet for me the question that I need to ask myself is: “is the concept worthwhile and meaningful enough to others for me to pursue creating the artwork?” Sometimes it seems that only I can relate to the artwork in my little head, but it is not reaching out to others. Writing this I realize that my mission is to be relevant and encourage others in their walk of life. I truly do not want to be self indulgent, commercial, unnecessary self centered or flamboyant. It may not be a popular mission nor financial profitable but being honest is more important to me. To relate to others, to empathize, and or to touch someone through my art matters the most.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: deniseweyhrich
• Facebook: Denise Weyhrich
• Linkedin: Denise Weyhrich
• Youtube: Denise Weyhrich
• Other: [email protected] #SeedsfineArt facebook & instagram Seeds Fine Art.org SeedsFineArt You tube “Epitaphs-what dreams may come” amazon publishing

Image Credits
I would like to share the captions for each of these artworks. It is important to be meaningful. First photo: My exhibition of “Home3” currently at the She/they gallery in Santora Arts Building Santa Ana CA second photo: self portrait third photo: @Robert_Tran photographer and photoshop work of “Casting Crowns” is watermarked, kindly use as provided 4: “time to tear out, time to mend” Ecclesiastes 3:7 (hair hats from chemo loss and path to healing) 5: “Rubraca to Life” (52 decks of morning & evening situ photos of my daily record of chemo pills) 6: “Manna” 7; “Spem in Album” (trust in no other) hospital bands and rubric pills between 2 wine barrel bands 8: “Conversations with mom” Sasse Museum Pomona CA 9: “Hymns of prayers – for Ukrainians”