When Roni Peskin Mentzer was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time, her friends in the Plexus Art Group asked what they could do for her. Aware that chemotherapy would cause her to lose her hair — again — she asked the fiber artists to make hats.
“Wigs are boring,” Mentzer told her friends two years ago. “Let’s create works of art. Let’s show the world beauty.”
The artists got right to work. “The first couple of hats were for me to wear,” says Mentzer, 66, of Larkspur. “Then I told my friends to just go for it, and the hats got wilder and outrageously creative. We knew then we had something important.”
Today, there are 38 hats. Some will be on display as part of National Women’s Month in the exhibit “Hats Off to You!,” which opens Saturday, April 2 at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto.
One hat resembles an ocean jelly with dangling tentacles, one features zippers that transform the hat into a scarf, and one is “hands-on,” sculpted fabric hands that form a hat. Several of the hats are hand-felted. One is crafted from metal and wire. Another is made from plastic newspaper bags and matches a wedding dress Mentzer once made from the bags.
Last spring, the hats served as centerpieces for the annual Honor Thy Healer dinner sponsored by Zero Breast Cancer — a nonprofit based in San Rafael — and the hats will reprise that role May 5 at this year’s dinner. The Marin Arts Council is planning a showing. In May, some of the hats will be on display in New York City to promote a new documentary on breast cancer.
The hats are now owned by Zero Breast Cancer, for which Mentzer is a trustee emeritus. At last year’s Honor Thy Healer dinner, an anonymous donor bought the whole lot for $10,000 and gave the hats back to the organization, with the stipulation that they be used to raise awareness of breast cancer.
“We are delighted that the hats have a permanent home at Zero Breast Cancer,” says Janice Barlow, executive director. “As one of the founders of Zero Breast Cancer, Roni has been involved with the organization since its inception in 1995 and is passionately committed to our mission.”
When the hat-making first began, Mentzer created two pieces. “All my friends were making fabulous hats, and even though they were for me, I got jealous, so I made two as centerpieces for last year’s dinner,” Mentzer says. “One is a salad hat from stiff mesh vegetable bags, and one is made from an old sequined blouse and a belt that I bought at a garage sale.”
The Plexus Art Group, founded three years ago, specializes in projects that are politically or socially relevant. Like the woman who inspired their creation, all 14 of the artists’ hats exude strength and confidence. (For more photos, see www.plexusartgroup.com.)
“Roni is an incredible force of nature, a beacon of light,” says Karen Balos, 68, of Oakland. “We all wanted to do anything we could for her.”
Balos made “a dazzling, flamboyant hat” using gold lamé. She crafted a second hat titled “Wild Orchids.” All the hats were designed to make the wearer feel beautiful.
Mentzer was first diagnosed with cancer in 1992, just after becoming engaged to Dr. William Mentzer, a pediatric hematologist and oncologist. They married two weeks after her cancer surgery, one day before her first chemotherapy treatment.
The diagnosis surprised Mentzer. Though she is an Ashkenazi Jew, tests showed she does not have the gene mutation that so often causes the disease, and no one in her family had ever been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Eleven years later, Mentzer was diagnosed with breast cancer once again. She was treated and remained cancer-free for seven years. The cancer returned two years ago. She currently is undergoing treatments.
Mentzer has a daughter from a previous marriage and her husband has three children, “so we share four,” she says. Until her second diagnosis, Mentzer worked as an interior designer, specializing in office design. Since then, she has turned exclusively to art.
She treasures the hats made in her honor. “All these hats are so precious — they represent the joy of life, the beauty of life,” Mentzer says.
“Going through cancer, I have learned that all we have is today. Cancer is a nightmare — one of the worst — but you have to find a way to live in the nightmare and still enjoy and appreciate everything that you hold dear.”
“Hats Off to You!” runs through April 27 in the lobby of the Goldman Sports and Wellness Complex at the Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto. To schedule a viewing, call (650) 223-8699 or email [email protected].
For information on the Honor Thy Healer dinner, visit www.zerobreastcancer.org/events.html.