Into The Tunnel

A brutally visual and realistic account of cancer and recovery.

When diagnosed with Stage 3 throat cancer, visual artist David Brady thought to record his journey with his ballpoint pen. Hundred of drawings and paintings later he was through his chemo and radiation treatments yet still "in the pain cave." Follow David's journey through his unique Graphic Memoir Into the Tunnel.

Selected works are available in the Shop.

**“Fight for Daylight”**
Oil with discarded paper on canvas. 22 x 28 inches framed. Available for purchase.

***“The Chase”***
Mixed media with discarded object on canvas. 16 x 24 inches framed. Available for purchase.

As a survivor of Stage 3 Throat Cancer, Phoenix-based artist David Brady documented his personal journey through misdiagnosis, chemotherapy, and radiation with a ballpoint and sketchbook. His prognosis was terminal, providing no hope of recovery or remission without aggressive treatment.

As a practicing visual artist for most of his adult life, Brady chronicled each arduous, frightening, and sometimes absurd, episode of his experience the best way he knew.: through making art. Today, he’s fully recovered, is happily married, and runs in the mountains near his home in Arizona.

**“Study for Pain”**
Drawing with digital collage. 1 of 3 versions printed on archival paper. 12 x 16 inches.
Available for purchase.

**“Foreward”**
Pencil, ballpoint pen and oil on canvas. 25 x 37 inches framed. Available for purchase.

His works incorporate art layered with medical records, prescriptions, and found objects representative of ports, feeding tubes, and other medical devices. The exhibition opening coincides with his recently published graphic memoir, Into the Tunnel, which included numerous color plates and poems written by the artist. Both authentic accounts of his physical and emotional transformation experience provide the reader and/or viewer with rare insight into the vulnerability, fragility, and resilience of the human condition. Brady chose to share his deeply personal work as an inspiration to others in this time of global pandemic and instability, with its attendant physical and mental health challenges, and the uncertainty of it all.

**“Compartments”**
Pencil with ballpoint pen, oil, and discarded objects on canvas. 9 x 12 inches. Private Collection

***“Lab Results”***
Pencil with ballpoint pen, oil, and discarded objects on canvas. 9 x 12 inches.
Private Collection

In spite of the seriousness of the subject, there’s a redemptive thread of hope, resilience, and humor running throughout much of the narrative of the exhibition's art and the memoir. Anyone who’s dealt with the ubiquitous scourge of cancer or been a loving caregiver will unquestionably recognize their own. Personal emotions and experiences in Brady’s “The Human Condition” exhibition.

- Frederick Holmes, Gallery Director
Visit> Frederick Holmes and Company Gallery