Samantha Paige

S01.1: What is a Last Cut? 

In the introductory Last Cut Conversations episode, Last Cut creator, artist Samantha Paige, tells her personal story and discusses how the Last Cut project was born. Samantha talks vulnerably and candidly about her cancer diagnosis at age 21 and the debilitating effects of unaddressed trauma, anxiety and depression over the following decades. After years of suffering from PTSD and undergoing additional major surgeries, Samantha finally began to ask herself some powerful questions that led to greater freedom, wellness and peace within and around her body. 

Last Cut is a photo-documentary and book project about those big life decisions {last cuts} made to bring us closer to living truth and more freedom. The project was born in January 2016, when Samantha opted to remove silicone implants she had elected 8 years ago when she had a preventive double mastectomy. Her explant surgery became the metaphor for the many ways in which we are faced with choices that ask us to address big questions within ourselves, commit to our truth and own our scars. Her explant inspired the launch of the Last Cut project with photographer Lisa Field with the intention to capture these moments of truth and bold ownership of self.  The basis of the Last Cut way of living is asking questions, such as “What is most true to you?” and “How are you living it?” These questions provide the foundation for the Last Cut Conversations. 

Samantha is currently finishing her memoir, Last Cut, and working with Lisa Field on the Last Cut photo-documentary and Last Cut Conversations, where bold individuals are interviewed and photographed.