Finding Hope and Meaning Beyond the Canvas

An audible gasp arose from among the Ogden Family as Polaris was unveiled for the first time in Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Leidy Auditorium. Their anticipation for the moment had peaked, but nothing could prepare Larry Ogden’s wife, Janice, or their three adult daughters for seeing the artwork – brilliant-colored pencils on thick, grayish paper – or for how remarkably well the artist captured their collective memory of the man.  

Wednesday, June 4, 2025, marked the seventh unveiling ceremony for Beyond the Canvas, a collaboration between Fox Chase’s Office of Academic Affairs and the Student Design Lab of William Tennent High School in Warminster, Pa. As part of the senior year program, students are paired with a “Muse,” typically a patient, caregiver, or family member whose life has been touched by cancer.  

Speaking for the family, especially since her mother was having trouble finding words at that moment, Wendy Ogden took the opportunity to thank the artist, Lily Bollendorf, a senior at Tennent.  

“We didn’t know what to expect, but nothing could be better than what you did,” Ogden said. “This is grounded in my dad, who was someone who made things happen in a great way and set us all up to be strong and resilient.” 

“This is both exceptionally wonderful and very hard,” she added.  

Beyond the Classroom

The challenge Beyond the Canvas poses to the student-artists who participate could also be described as both exceptionally wonderful and very hard. As the culminating project of their senior year, students are taught how to interview their Muses and, within mere weeks after an introduction, are expected to produce a piece of art that somehow tells the story of their Muse. Typically, they produce a sketch or painting, but past students have included sculpture and stained glass in their work.

“This partnership has helped redefine outreach at Fox Chase and captures empathy in a new way, showing how perspective through art can reflect resilience, identity, and hope for patients and caregivers,” said Amanda Purdy, PhD, Associate Chief Academic Officer. “For students, it is a chance for them to learn stories and build connections across the generations through their craft.”

The Student Design Lab was developed by William Tennent science teacher, Ignacio Jayo, who sought to provide a learning experience that more closely resembled the complex world in which his students would ultimately find themselves. The lab is a full-credit, year-long class that Jayo co-leads with art teacher Rena Friedant.  

The class is designed to present real-world challenges to students and encourage them to devise solutions. The program finds inspiration in the words of Sarah Stein Greenberg, Executive Director of Stanford Design School:  

“This is a generation of students who are incredibly highly structured, but they’re going to be entering an increasingly ambiguous world. We need to be training our students not just to expect that they will be society’s leaders, but also to be our most creative, daring, and resilient problem solvers.”

Beyond the Canvas came about in 2019 as Tennent students toured the cancer center while exploring possible topics for the Student Design Lab. One student in particular, then-high school junior Sophia Trozzi, noticed there was a disconnect between the clinical setting of the facility and the palpably emotional culture of its staff, patients, and volunteers. She pitched the idea and has been an active participant in the program ever since, which she calls an immense gift. 

“This year is super surreal for me,” said Trozzi at the 2025 unveiling. “Something from junior year in high school is still going on while I am now out of college and working.”  

“This experience that the students go through is incredibly rare,” she added. “It is more than artwork; it is all of human experience—struggles, pain, joy, and laughter.”

Jayo brought the concept to Glenn Rall, PhD, Fox Chase’s Chief Academic Officer, who immediately saw the potential.  

 The Beyond the Canvas challenge is open to seniors enrolled in the school’s Advanced Placement Studio Art class. Friedant begins recruiting artists in January and the training process goes through to May when they finally interview their Muses – people from the Fox Chase community who have been recruited to participate with the guidance of people like Helen Gordon, Director of Volunteer Services. The artists then have three weeks to produce a work of art.

As co-chair of the Fox Chase Art Committee, the unveiling event has become a favorite for Gordon. “I look forward to it every year, and I can attest to the effect this partnership has had on patients and their families,” she said.  

In past years, Gordon has always snuck a peek at the artwork before the event, but this year she entered the Leidy Auditorium not knowing what to expect and let out a little gasp of awe of her own as each piece was revealed. 

According to Gordon, the cancer center will eventually display the artwork in a rotating gallery still under development before they are given to their respective Muse.  

Polaris

Lily Bollendorf, Artist 
The Ogden Family, Muse

Lily Bollendorf grew up surrounded by art. Her mother has a degree in jewelry-making, and her father is an art teacher. However, it was not until she attended William Tennent High School that she realized how capable she was of creating art on her own.  

“Lily slices to the truth with her art,” Friedant noted in introducing Bollendorf. “It has been inspiring to watch Lily’s confidence bubble to the surface as she progressed.” This fall, Bollendorf is attending Bucks County Community College to study fine art to build a career as a tattoo artist.  

You can see Bollendorf’s aspirations in Polaris, which features a dramatically life-like profile of Larry Ogden with his life’s stories and passions written across his features. Up close, his face is transformed into a map of the Ogden world. As Bollendorf explained, she wanted to do justice to someone who meant so much to his family.  

“I call it Polaris – the North Star – because he served as such a strong and guiding light to others,” Bollendorf said. “It is all about his strength and unwavering love for his children and Janice, his partner for 60 years.”  

The drawing is filled with metaphorical shapes and designs related to his family and personal character. Nevada and North Carolina represent homes and favored destinations. A hammer-shaped island floats dreamily in the space, representative of his inner strength and can-do attitude. The anchor, of course, represents Janice, with other shapes and features referring to his three daughters and seven grandkids.  

“This is why I want to be a tattoo artist,” Bollendorf said, “You can help people tell personal stories that will live on their skin forever.”  

Luminary

Ryann Rivera, Artist

Donna Thompson, Muse

Friedant notes that Ryann Rivera is a thinker and a natural leader. “She keeps her concerns close to her heart, but she is not as shy as she seems,” said Friedant. Rivera is attending Penn State University to study art education, “and we couldn’t design a better future educator,” said Friedant.

Rivera had been making art for as long as she could remember. “About three years ago, I had knee surgery; I spent so much time isolated and alone, so I began practicing my art,” Rivera said. This led to studying new media and techniques. “It was a dark time,” she recalled, “but it shaped my goals in life for the better.”

In many aspects, Rivera’s Muse, Donna Thompson, had a similar process of discovery going on in her life. Even before she was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 45, Thompson felt lost and isolated. The diagnosis forced her to reevaluate her outlook. As Rivera described, Thompson realized that she could foster a life with purpose, and she found that purpose in community and in joining support groups. “Donna would tell me that she took more from cancer than cancer took from her,” Rivera said, “and that her community saved her life.” 

Luminary is an oil on canvas depiction of three ladies, seen only by their legs, wading at the beach during sunset. The idea came from a description of a recent trip Thompson took to the beach with friends, Rivera explains. Like Polaris, the image is full of metaphorical depictions of important things in Thompson’s life.  

The three figures represent unity, and the lamp held by the central figure glows in the classical shape of the goddess Nike, representing victory and lighting the way for others. The bucket left in the sand represents the knowledge Thompson wants to provide her nieces, while the bouquet of sweet peas and dandelions represents resilience and cherished friendship. The footprints left behind on the beach are meant to convey motion, because Thompson’s story remains ongoing.  
 

For her part, Thompson was left nearly wordless in response. She had a difficult day, she described, which caused her to be late to the presentation.  

“I really just needed to hear this today,” Thompson said, “I’m overwhelmed.”