BENNINGTON- Artist and cancer survivor Viola Moriarty, whose exhibit “Ex Voto Suscepto” at the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center opened to wide acclaim earlier this year, has offered selected works to be displayed at Southern Vermont College’s Burgdorff Gallery in Everett Mansion starting Monday, October 26. The exhibit is scheduled in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month and coincides with the college’s upcoming talk on October 27 by nurse scientist Marsha Fonteyn on her study of creative expressive journaling by breast cancer survivors.

Moriarty, a self-taught visual artist and poet, has widely exhibited her portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, and other work in the southern Vermont and western Massachusetts area. “Ex Voto Suscepto” was created while Moriarty was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. As a mixed-media body of work in paint and collage, it was designed to be viewed as different stations of the healing process. “’Ex voto suscepto means, in Latin, ‘from the vow made’ or can be translated ‘in pursuance of a vow,’ ” explains Moriarty, “Many cultures have examples of these works, but it is the simple Mexican versions that have influenced me.” Using exvoto symbols in metal and other materials, Moriarty has created paintings and collages of colorful diversity and deep meaning. The artist described the exhibit as “by far the most personal and biographic work I’ve done and certainly the most reflective and vulnerable to display.”

The artwork will be on display in Southern Vermont College’s Burgdorff Gallery from October 26 until November 25. The Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. The upcoming talk by Dr. Marsha Fonteyn, formerly of Dana Farber Cancer Institute, is on Tuesday, October 27, at 2:45 pm, and is free and open to the public. The title of Fonteyn’s talk is “The Experience of Living With Metastatic Breast Cancer: Insights Gained from Women’s Expressive Writings.” For more information on the Fonteyn lecture please contact the College Communications Office at (802) 447-6388 or visit the Web site at www.svc.edu. To learn more about the artwork of Viola Moriarty visit her Web site at www.vimorpainter.wordpress.com.