Brooklyn teen turns to art after beating cancer

A Brooklyn teen is finally cancer-free after two years of battling lymphoma, and to celebrate, he's turning toward a newfound passion: art. Ryan Reyes says that before he got sick, sports had his interest.

News 12 Staff

Apr 13, 2015, 2:47 AM

Updated 3,476 days ago

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A Brooklyn teen is finally cancer-free after two years of battling lymphoma, and to celebrate, he's turning toward a newfound passion: art.
Ryan Reyes says that before he got sick, sports had his interest. But after his family reached out to local art therapy organization called "A Free Bird," he discovered his love of art.
Through Free Bird, Reyes was paired up with a volunteer artist who showed him the ropes of graffiti art and helped him hone his painting skills. Since last Christmas, the pair has been working on a piece in Reyes' backyard, which officially became his creative outlet through his treatments.
Now that Reyes has officially been declared, cancer-free, he says he can finally focus on his newfound talents.
"I go to a high school that's involved with art and arts take up a big part of my life," he says. "Hopefully my career will be involved with art."
Over the next few months, Reyes will get to meet one-on-one with a professional artist thanks to the organization so that he can hopefully take his career to the next level.