Cancer taught me that some of the most important growth happens where no one can see it.
In the months following surgery, recovery was slow, uncertain, and often invisible. Progress rarely felt like progress at all. Most days it looked like simply getting up and trying again.
Using bamboo as a metaphor, this digital story explores the hidden work of healing, resilience, and rebuilding after life’s hardest seasons. The bamboo drawing featured throughout the film was created by my daughter, Scarlett Tyler, and became a symbol of the growth that takes place beneath the surface long before it becomes visible.
Built in the Breaking draws from a memoir I am currently writing that explores loss, cancer, grief, resilience, and the long process of rebuilding after profound loss and adversity. At its heart, the film explores how healing, growth, and rebuilding are rarely dramatic, but are often found in the small, unseen choices we make each day to keep moving forward.
Built in the Breaking draws from a memoir I am currently writing that explores loss, cancer, grief, resilience, and the long process of rebuilding after profound loss and adversity. At its heart, the film explores how healing, growth, and rebuilding are rarely dramatic, but are often found in the small, unseen choices we make each day to keep moving forward.
The Bamboo Season essay:
https://quick-brown-fox-
https://quick-brown-fox-
Credits
Digital Storyteller, Writer, Director, Photography and Video: Kyla McGrath
Original Bamboo Artwork: Scarlett Tyler
Editor and Mentor: Lorna Boschman
Workshop Mentor: Sebnem Ozpeta
Sound Effects: Pixabay
Created during grunt gallery’s Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen Digital Storytelling Workshop (2026).
Special thanks to Lorna Boschman and Sebnem Ozpeta for their feedback, encouragement, and support throughout the storytelling process.
Created during grunt gallery’s 2026 Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen Digital Storytelling workshops. grunt gallery was founded in 1984 in Vancouver, BC with the vision to become an internationally renowned artist-run centre and further the practice of contemporary art. Through the exploration of our diverse Canadian cultural identity, we are able to offer public programming in the form of exhibitions, performances, artist talks, publications, and other special projects in the community. Our mandate is to inspire public dialogue by creating an environment conducive to the emergence of innovative, collaborative, and provocative contemporary art.
