The SurvivorNet community was delighted to see “Top Gun” actor Val Kilmer out and about this month — looking lively as ever, despite his cancer battle. Kilmer, 59, has been laying low since his throat cancer diagnosis two years ago. But the actor made a rare public appearance over the weekend as host of an art exhibit at his HelMel studio in Los Angeles.
At the exhibition, Kilmer — who himself is an artist who works with enamel paint on metal — posed with the artist, Tamie Adaya, who also owns and operates an artist collective in Santa Monica, Calif., called Crown Jewels.
Val Kilmer’s Original Art
The exact details of Kilmer’s surgery are unclear, but Kilmer is living with a “tracheotomy,” a procedure to open the wind pipe and help patients to breathe.
What is a Tracheostomy?
A tracheostomy (or tracheotomy) may be needed when a person needs to have part or all of either their larynx (voice box) or pharynx (throat) removed. The procedure connects the trachea (windpipe) to a hole (stoma) in the front of the neck. This allows a person to breathe by letting air in and out of the lungs through the stoma, according to the American Cancer Society.Art During Cancer Recovery
SurvivorNet has spoken with many people who said that art has been an important part of their healing process. Marianne Cuozzo, for instance, a three-time cancer survivor, says she turns to art during treatment and beyond
Three time cancer survivor Marianne DuQuette Cuozzo on the importance of art during cancer recovery
It might be accurate, she told SurvivorNet, to say that cancer has been her whole life. However, as a mother and an artist, she has turned her life into a lot more than her diagnosis.
“I'm doing the best I can to feel beautiful in this new body,” she said after surviving Hodgkin's lymphoma twice as well as breast cancer. Cuozzo has always found comfort expressing herself through art. Her work reflects a deeply personal evolution of body image and sexuality.
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