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Cancer survivor's bald head becomes canvas for artists

By Maggie Grainger

August 7, 2006

San Diego--Kristin Hansen was devastated when she learned she had renal Sarcoma, a rare form of kidney cancer more than a year ago, but instead of letting the disease dictate her life, the Point Loma teenager decided to turn her deteriorating body into a work of art.

She said the support she received was amazing and she was able to raise more than $1500 through donations and selling 30 photographs.

She said the whole thing started out as a joke between her close friends who thought it would be fun to doodle on her bare head to cheer her up.

“Right now it’s a brownish color and curly,” she said of her hair post-cancer. “That often happens after chemo and I’m told that eventually it will grow back to the way it was.”

Although she admits it was tough at first to lose her naturally straight, auburn red hair, Hansen said she mentally prepared herself for the change by cutting it 14 inches before the medicine took its effect.

“I’m keeping it short, though, because it’s so easy to deal with – in a way I actually liked being bald because I had no hair maintenance and no bad hair days.”

It’s this positive attitude that led the 18-year-old, who celebrated a cancer-free birthday this past Friday, to her unique art experiment.

She was so impressed by her friend’s artistic renderings that she started photographing the results and even got Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge to take a sharpie and sketch a “cartoon guy smiling and waving next to a palm tree and a mountain” on her head.

“He was at a cancer support group that I was going to and so I just went up and asked him,” she said. “All I had on me was a sharpie, so he just went ahead with that.”

While she enjoyed being scribbled on by a famous singer, Hansen says one of her favorite pieces was done by a camp counselor who spent more than 45 minutes drawing  his rendition of her exposed brain with a gecko coming out of it.

“It’s kind of gross, but really, really cool,” she said with a laugh.

Hansen said she hopes her work inspires other cancer patients to look at the brighter side of life and that she is looking forward to a healthy future.

While she may be cancer-free, Hansen says she has decided to take a year off school before she heads out to Massachusetts to attend Wellesley College, where she will major in physics and minor in philosophy.

“I’m doing a lot better,” Hansen said. “But I still need to get up enough strength to make a move as big as college.

“The focus of my year is to fully rebuild and get ready for Wellesley.”

For now she plans on taking classes at a local community college and continue to volunteer for Mama’s Kitchen and the Americans for a Department of Peace project.

She also plans on developing a program which would revolve around her cancer experience and share her story with others.

- For more information on Kristin’s photographs contact her at quantumkris@gmail.com. Also check out papaha.com for upcoming show/gallery information.

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