The Haunted Forest

By Ron Marullo

February 11th, 2016

In the middle of 2015, at 45 years old, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. After 24 weeks of chemo, my scans were clean and I scheduled a reversal for my colostomy earlier this year. However, the surgery was aborted mid-operation when it was discovered that the cancer had spread. I am now at stage 4 and I have restarted chemo. My mother, a lifetime artist, lovingly encouraged me to take up watercolors as an expressive and creative outlet. She has been a wonderful guide and teacher for me during this time. One of the works she encouraged me to do was an abstract watercolor on yupo paper. I call it the Haunted Forest. It is a rendition of the haunted forest from "The Wizard of Oz" with the golden path of the yellow brick road a bit tarnished, but still leading to a way out of the horrors of the haunted forest. With many of us in similar situations, there is a lot of meaning embedded in that.