Former CHOC pediatric oncology clinical research director Violet Shen, herself a cancer survivor, was invited to the Hope is a Masterpiece reception at City of Hope Orange County, where two of her photographs were selected for exhibition.
Presented by the Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, “Hope is a Masterpiece” is an art-centered healing program that brings hope, courage, and resilience into the care setting through photography, painting, and other works.
Art Heals • Hope Glows
The Program began by pairing cancer survivors’ stories with local art and has since grown into an ongoing exhibition, refreshed every six months.
Through each work, City of Hope honors the human spirit and makes hope something patients and the community can truly feel.
This year, selected works are displayed along the fourth- and fifth-floor treatment corridors and featured on a large lobby screen, bringing moments of beauty, calm, and comfort to patients and families.
This year’s “Hope is a Masterpiece” drew more than 100 community photographers and artists.
A recent reception brought participants together to celebrate the selected works and thank the community for its support.
Sunset Sea • Golden Bloom
One of Violet Shen selected photographs captures dusk at Laguna Beach—golden waves, glowing skies, and birds in flight—quietly suggesting that even as evening falls, life still holds light and direction.
The other was taken at the San Diego Botanic Garden, where cascading angel’s trumpets gleam like gold in shifting light—a quiet reminder that beauty can still bloom after life’s fiercest storms.
Through Storms • Still Light
For Violet Shen, this exhibition carries special meaning. After years caring for cancer patients on the front lines, she knows how illness can reshape a life.
Having faced cancer herself, she now understands hope in a far deeper way.
That evening’s reception was warm and intimate. As guests wandered through the gallery, Violet Shen stood beside her work, calm and radiant.
In that moment, one truth felt unmistakable: true strength is not escaping the storm, but keeping one’s light—and passing it on—after it.
This is also the second time Shen’s photography has been selected for the exhibition.
Her first featured California poppies and wildflowers in full bloom; this time, she again turns to nature to express her gratitude for life and her quiet reflections on it.
She once stood beside patients in their darkest valleys. Now, through her lens, she preserves light for others.
For Shen, photography is the way she continues to offer hope and tenderness to the world after enduring life’s trials herself.