> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Santa Monica gallery pairs art and healing in breast cancer show - URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-gallery-pairs-art-and-healing-in-breast-cancer-show/ - Published: 2026-10-07T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-07T16:00:00.000Z - Author: Maaz Alin - Tags: Lifestyle, Ocean Park A Santa Monica gallery that remade itself around patients living with illness will host a reception Oct. 17, opening with a free art meditation session, for a Ventura artist who painted her way through breast cancer. The "Jill's Journey" event at dnj Gallery, timed to Breast Cancer Awareness Month and sponsored by Living Beauty Cancer Foundation, begins at 5 p.m. with CALM Art, a guided art meditation led by artist Jill Covell that requires no art experience. A reception follows from 6 to 8 p.m. "I'll also be doing a book signing that evening, and the art in the gallery will be for sale, with 25% of the event's proceeds going to [Living Beauty](https://livingbeauty.org/?ref=smdp.com) so they can continue offering free programs to women with cancer," she said. Living Beauty, a national nonprofit, has supported women with cancer for more than two decades. Covell said she has worked with the group "both as a survivor and to help create art programs for others." Founder and director Pamela Schoenberg shifted dnj Gallery in 2024 from a solely commercial space to one with a charitable and educational mission centered on medical patients and artists, drawing on her background in nutritional science, preventive medicine and health coaching. The gallery presents its current exhibition, "In Strength," through Art and Med, a program that pairs exhibitions with community events to increase awareness, further education and raise money for charity. The group show features artists connected to breast cancer and runs through Dec. 5. Its title reflects the idea that strength is not the absence of fear or pain but something built in their presence, and that art can help build it. Covell's installation traces her experience with breast cancer through spirit animals, displayed with a map and narrative guiding visitors through her experience and each animal's meaning. "The real breakthrough came when I was going through heavy chemo and needed a way to visualize my white blood cells multiplying and going on the attack," Covell said. Covell has aphantasia, which she said "might sound strange for an artist, but painting is how I visualize." A painting called "Healing Shower" started the collection. "From that point on, I knew I was going to create a painting for each phase of the journey, and I really haven't stopped," she said. A few months into treatment, a therapist helping Covell manage anxiety recommended an art therapy group at UCLA's Simms Mann. "No doctor appointments, no calls, just an hour and a half every Wednesday that I blocked off for art," she said. "It was truly liberating." "Many times I'd just want to paint a particular animal, and later, when writing the narrative, I'd understand why that animal mattered," Covell said. One painting grew out of sunset clouds that looked like a dragon and a butterfly, a sight she said felt symbolic of what she was going through during radiation: "the dragon strong and fierce, the butterfly transformative and delicate." Gold lines in the painting represent the radiation rays, a reference to the Japanese art of kintsugi. "I see my cancer journey as both a blessing and a curse," Covell said. "The curse part is obvious, no one wants cancer. The blessing is that it allowed me to reinvent myself and become the person I was really meant to be." "I lost my business, I lost my boyfriend, my world was crashing, and yet I knew it wouldn't get the better of me," she said. She hopes sharing her experience "gives a voice to others going through this devastating disease and offers them hope." People have told her the story and images brought tears to their eyes because they related to the words, she said, "and then a smile because of the beauty and healing in the images." Covell, who began painting at 11, holds a [bachelor's degree](https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-college-to-open-applications-for-cloud-computing-bachelors-degree/) in painting and drawing from UCLA and a master of fine arts in installation and sculpture from Claremont Graduate University, where she was the first student to receive a degree in that program. Her book, "Jill's Journey: A Cancer Story Told Through Art and Healing," is available on Amazon. She met several of the show's other artists at the opening. One piece in the exhibition, "Making New Friends," explores the bond among people who have gone through cancer. "Even though each of us has traveled a different path, there's a real camaraderie," Covell said. Covell will also join a Nov. 15 conversation at the gallery with Ashley James and Dr. Evanthia Roussos Torres of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. The gallery, at 3015 Ocean Park Blvd., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and by appointment. RSVPs for the reception are taken through the gallery's website. More information is available at[ ](https://www.dnjgallery.net/current.html?ref=smdp.com)[dnjgallery.net/current.html](https://www.dnjgallery.net/current.html?ref=smdp.com).