Shelby Lien: Baptism and Resurrection

Yesterday, Shelby Lien celebrated three years of sobriety — three years of choosing clarity, resilience, and life. Today, August 28, she steps forward with another revelation: one that carries both shadow and spirit.

For Shelby, survival has meant confrontation. Carrying both the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, she lives with an 80–90% chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer. On August 5, she underwent a double mastectomy. In October, she will undergo a full hysterectomy. These surgeries strip away the cultural signifiers of womanhood, but in doing so, they return her to life.

Her photographs — most often self-portraits — embody this paradox. Blackened hands, smeared textures, tear-stained skin, and water immersions capture grief, rage, and release. They are baptisms and resurrections. They tell the story of what is lost, but also what is claimed.

Yesterday’s sobriety anniversary was a celebration of life reclaimed. Today’s revelation continues that story — womanhood rewritten not by biology, but by courage and creativity.

On this astrologically potent day, Shelby reminds us what it means to embody both shadow and spirit: to confront the monster and the grief, and still choose to rise.