Brushes with Cancer Artist PC Elliott admits he does not have a personal experience with a terminal illness but he knows what it’s like to stare death in the face. In the summer of 2023, PC returned to Alaska after a 10-year absence from the fishery. Used to working on the Great Lakes, PC had a steep learning curve when he faced the Bering Sea. “It’s where I learned how to pray, let’s say that. You don’t know if you’re coming home.” Fishing and hunting workers hold the No. 2 slot for most dangerous jobs in America, a danger PC has witnessed firsthand.  “I’ve seen people get taken overboard from a distance,” he said. “At any moment, if you take a wrong turn, you can be dead in minutes.”   Fishing crews face deadly circumstances for sockeye salmon, a fish PC says is unlike any other.  “It’s a completely different animal,” PC said. “And, that’s the last wild salmon fishery on Earth. Bristol Bay Sockeye Fishery is all that is left.” Connection to life, death and Mother Nature are just a few examples of PC’s pillars as a human and an artist. He understands nature can be just as healing as it is deadly and that, most importantly, the Earth is all we have. “When nature’s gone, we’re gone,” PC said. “It’s literally how we live, it’s our oxygen It’s our very means of survival. Nature reminds you of all those important things and how fragile they are.”  

Diving into Brushes with Cancer

Based in Michigan, PC is heavily inspired by the Great Lakes. His artwork often incorporates found objects from the lakes and their surrounding areas.  “I scuba dive, so I’ve come across old shipwrecks,” he said. “I’m a student of history and like to go out on my adventures in the wilderness and find old artifacts.” His frequent salvage work in the Great Lakes is how he received his 100-ton captain’s license, which is necessary for working on the salmon run in Alaska. “I have a deep reverence for nature,” he said. “It reminds us we are very small.” As a Brushes with Cancer Artist, PC’s work reflects that reverence.   “The Love I Swim In,” his piece for the Spring 2024 exhibition features a sea turtle as its focus and incorporates found materials like wood, copper, ceramic and velum. Surrounding the turtle are other symbols: a pine cone representing the brain’s pineal gland; copper to celebrate Aquarius, the zodiac sign PC shares with his Inspiration; a butterfly symbolizing transformation. “You’re part of this vast, natural world,” he said. “You play a role in it and your role isn’t to throw McDonald’s wrappers on the street.” PC took a similar approach to his 2021 Brushes with Cancer piece, “Anuja’s Journey,” recycling pieces from a local bridge that would have otherwise been discarded.   “I asked the guys if I could grab a few, so I grabbed them,” PC said. “That was the base of the sculpture and turned it into a book shape.” His artistry is even incorporated into his career at General Motors. A wood model maker, PC would build vehicle prototypes.  “It’s definitely a dream job for a creative like me,” he said. “I’ve been a model maker my whole life. I’m always happiest when I’m making sawdust.”  

Forming a deeper connection through unlikely circumstances

  His job at General Motors connected him with Twist Out Cancer. Board member, Artist and fellow GM employee Kara Thomas helped bring the Brushes with Cancer program to the corporation’s design center. When PC learned about the opportunity to engage his craft in a new way, he immediately signed up.  I thought it’d be a cool way to be more empathetic to others, not just my own stories,” he said. “It would give me a new insight into what it’s like to be empathetic to cancer survivors outside of my family.” Similar to other Brushes with Cancer Artists, PC has been touched by cancer. His grandmother died from pancreatic cancer and his father survived prostate cancer, giving him what he calls “close-to-home stories about cancer.”  PC’s experience in Alaska also affected his role as a Brushes with Cancer Artist. Through dancing death so closely, he builds deeper connections with the Brushes with Cancer Inspirations he’s been paired with over the years.  “When you experience that brush with death … it gives you a lot more empathy for those who have had the same sort of brush with death.” Since his introduction to Brushes with Cancer in 2019, PC has participated as an Artist in four programs and has plans to participate in many more.  “I’ll never forget any of this,” PC said. “Every word, every brush stroke has meaning because of the Inspiration’s story. It’s a pretty magical intersection.”