Story by Sarah Worth, Gasparilla Arts.
Challenges bring opportunities. It’s a cliche that says a lot yet can’t truly convey the enormity of challenges Miriam Zimms faced while battling cancer and then the pure joy she found in the artistic opportunities that later grew out of that experience.
In 2010, while working as a consultant and business owner, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was later told she carried the BRCA gene, leading to the removal of her breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes. In 2013, additional tests found a second primary cancer – chondrosarcoma – in her left pelvis, leading to a 10-hour surgery, an internal hemipelvectomy and full-hip replacement.
Two years of physical therapy helped her re-learn how to sit up, then to stand up, and then to walk again, leaving her with the use of a cane and rollator for short distances and a wheelchair and electric scooter for longer treks.
Loss after loss of the feminine self (miscarriages, breasts, ovaries/fallopian tubes, her left pelvis, loss of motherhood) in three short years, coupled with post-surgical side effects, led Miriam to turn to the healing arts as a way to help her cope.
It was out of these challenges that Miram discovered the power of art to heal. While undergoing treatment at Moffitt Cancer Center, Miram tenaciously participated in the hospital’s arts in medicine program, which encourages patients and families to engage with art and music to promote healing and self-discovery through cancer.
Miram dove right into the therapeutic program and began a daily personal arts practice to help her focus away from anxiety, PTSD, chronic pain and doubts about her life ahead and to regain some sense of control through a meditative and creative arts process.
“The arts became the outlet to tell my story, to express emotions and feelings, and create,” she said. “It allowed my analytical left-brain side to take a back seat to the creative right brain side. I really had no options but physical therapy and the arts every day for two years. I needed more than just to survive.”
“The arts became the outlet to tell my story, to express emotions and feelings, and create,” she said. “It allowed my analytical left-brain side to take a back seat to the creative right brain side. I really had no options but physical therapy and the arts every day for two years. I needed more than just to survive.”
Others took notice, too. Her husband, of course, but also the team at Moffitt, the local USF CAM Curator, libraries, cultural arts center, and local organizations. She was experiencing a metamorphosis, of sorts, transforming from patient to thriver to artist and advocate.
And more was to come: Miriam went on to advocate nationally for Arts in Health as a board member of the National Organization for Arts in Health, become an artist with a disability through Arts4All FL, volunteer to teach artists with the Franciscan Center’s Operation Restore program, and become involved in the Hispanic Services Council children’s immigrant arts program.
“Without Arts4All FL organization,” she said. “I would not have gained credibility over time as an abstract symbolism artist, focusing on loss and resiliency.”
Her own art has been in more than 17 galleries throughout Florida, including in the permanent collection on display at the Moffitt Cancer Center’s International Plaza campus in Tampa.
Miriam was also a featured artist in the live demonstration studios during the 2022 Gasparilla Festival of the Arts. Over the course of the weekend’s event, attendees contributed to the creation of an on-site expressive arts 8’ by 4’ mural and a live 3’ by 2’ ink canvas piece, which were donated at the end of the event.
Beyond Tampa, her work has been showcased in collections in Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, the Osceola Arts Center in Kissimmee, and in the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee. And farther afield, some of her art now lives comfortably in homes from California, Denver, New York City, and even Germany, among others.
Abroad, Miriam mentored Arts in Health peers in Egypt this summer to roll out an expressive arts (visual arts and music) event on International Museum Day for World Peace at the Manial Palace Museum in Cairo. https://thenoah.net/the-meditative-arts-come-to-egypt-thru-music-and-zentangle-art-mural/
She speaks frequently about accessibility and the arts.
“My art is intended to heal, me while I express and create it, you while you view it, and the community as they experience it,” she said. “It’s really about making the arts accessible to all.”
Today, Miriam is 14 years from her breast cancer diagnosis (triple negative) advocating as the Guatemalan Globes, and 11 years from chondrosarcoma (primary bone cancer) advocating as HIPster the Artist.
“I still make it a daily practice to do something artistic, to keep creating in a new body and life that will never be the same again,” she said. “Having faced so many losses, I live in the present moment. I make it a practice not to live in fear. I have an ability now to leave my legacy through arts advocacy and my art.” https://encasawithm.com
Be sure to visit the Arts4All tent in the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts Community Outreach Village on Festival Weekend, March 1-2, 2025.
To learn more about Arts4All, visit their website at https://arts4allflorida.org/
