Inspiration and Expression

Thank you for taking the time to check out the Karecards.com website.  As you read the survivorship blogs and look at the artwork and cards, I pray you will be showered with strength, hope, and love on your journey.  I am Karen Maiers Sudduth, and I count it a privilege to share just a little bit of my life with you.

I was raised in Valparaiso, Indiana.  I received my undergraduate degree from Miami of Ohio (music education), and graduate degrees from the University of Mississippi (master's degree in vocal performance, doctorate degree in vocal pedagogy).  And most recently I gleaned an unsolicited but golden education from my experience with cancer.

My husband, John, is a United Methodist minister currently serving at Maples Memorial UMC in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We are abundantly blessed in this life with three children:  Steve (alias "Mikky Ekko," Nashville), Kirk (Nashville), and Joanna (Mississippi State University).  

During my 2007 cancer season, painting became a significant means of expressing the faith, hope, and love which carried me through a very difficult season in my life. The inspiration to paint came from the survivor and caregiver exhibits I saw in the Wings Art Gallery at West Clinic, where I took my chemotherapy treatments. Since completion of my treatments, I continue to paint and work with other media, producing artwork which expresses my journey of faith beyond breast cancer. Reproductions of selected treatment art work and recovery art work are available as cards. 

Spending time at West Clinic as a Wings volunteer is one of my greatest joys in survivorship.  Wings has an Art Cart, which is a portable art station stocked with a wonderful variety of art supplies.  These supplies are available to patients and caregivers during infusion time, and they provide relaxing, rewarding art opportunities for those who would like to take their minds off the meds and make something beautiful instead.  Beaded bracelets are a favorite project for many of the women, but patients and caregivers also spend time creating their own refrigerator magnets, wind chimes, beaded bookmarks, and crayon resist watercolors.

Wings Cancer Foundation is celebrating over a decade of providing hope, education, research, and support without charge to anyone touched by cancer. Wings is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. Funding is provided through grants, and individual and corporate tax-deductible donations. For more information, call 901.322.2984 or visit www.wingscancerfoundation.org.