Tracey Emin says her next ambition is to ‘get past Christmas’ amid cancer battle

Tracey Emin has said she hopes to “get past Christmas” following her cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

The artist, 57, is now in remission following an operation – but has had to have had organs removed and a stoma bag fitted.

She was first diagnosed in the spring, and underwent an operation over the summer.

Tracey had been working on a new piece, a painting of a malignant lump, when doctors discovered the tumour in her bladder.

Now she’s told how she was helped through her devastating diagnosis by moving house.

Tracey told The Sunday Times Magazine : “When I found out I had the cancer, I could deal with it because I thought, this has actually come at a good time, not a bad time.

“I was feeling happy, excited about my future – anything could happen, like the stars were aligning.

“I just felt really good. I’m excited about moving to my new house. I want to stay indoors and paint. I want to work. I don’t want to waste time.”

And asked what her next big ambition is, Tracey remarked: “Well, it’s a lot different from what it was before, to get past Christmas would be a good one.”

On her painting of the malignant lump, she told Artnet : “It’s exactly the same as my bladder with the tumour in it, before I knew I had the cancer – it’s brilliant!”

Best known for works like My Bed and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With, Tracey recently completed work on a whole new collection, Detail of Love, which will open in Brussels later this month.

Since her operation in the summer, Tracey has been unable to paint.

But she hasn’t let in quash her creative spirit, instead producing a photography series of her own body as part of an “existential” project.

In recent years, she upped sticks to Margate from London, and selling her home in Miami.

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