Art offers the ultimate healing for Santa Fe artist Rebecca Tobey. It also helps support the work she believes in.

Two days before the installation of a sculpture she donated to The University of New Mexico in 2009 in memory of her husband, Gene Tobey, Rebecca Tobey had a colonoscopy at the same facility. Four days after the installation, she was diagnosed with colon cancer.

"It was a real shock," said Rebecca Tobey, who lost her husband to leukemia. "I went to The University of New Mexico for treatment and had a fabulous team of doctors who did chemotherapy and radiation. Now I'm completely cancer-free. In fact, I just had a checkup, so I'm good to go."

Because of her experiences with both her husband's illness and her own, she often donates work to cancer-related nonprofit organizations.

Every year, the artist donates a piece to be auctioned off at the Cancer Institute Foundation's Sweetheart Ball. On Saturday, a custom piece titled Moonlight at Mason Mountain will be auctioned at the Mason County Cancer Benefit in Texas.

The piece is a 15.5-inch statue of a grizzly bear that features paintings of a white-tail dear and blue bonnets, which are common in that area of Texas.

"I wanted to do something special that art collectors in that area would connect with," Rebecca Tobey said. Her sculptures often contain paintings that tell different stories. She and her husband used to collaborate in this way — he'd make the sculptures and she'd make the paintings.

Tobey chose to donate something to the Mason, Texas, event because the couple and their two children lived there for a few years.

"It's a lovely little town and very, very friendly," Tobey said, adding that the family moved there because the altitude of Tesuque, where they lived previously, was proving to be troublesome for Gene Tobey, who was suffering from a respiratory illness. "We were made to feel at home in the community."

In 2005, the pair missed Santa Fe and despite the altitude, moved back.

When Gene Tobey died in January 2006, Rebecca Tobey began three scholarships in his honor — one for seniors at Mason High School (where both her children went to school); another for a student at the College of Eastern University (one of the schools her husband attended); and one for a student at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., where both her children — Joshua Tobey, 33; and Jami Tobey, 37 — attended school. Both are artists. Joshua Tobey is a sculptor and Jami Tobey is a painter.

"At the end of my husband's life, that's something he wanted to do," Rebecca Tobey said of starting the scholarships. "One of the things I learned through his death and my own cancer is the value of giving. That's something we don't focus enough on in our society."

Though she still does some charity work for the town of Mason, she's very active in her New Mexico community. In addition to her gifts to the Cancer Institute Foundation, she donates to the Española Valley Humane Society and to ArtFeast. This year, she was the featured artist for the event, which promotes the arts in public schools.

"I went into the public schools and worked with kids at Santa Fe and Capital High Schools," Tobey said. She also volunteers with Felines and Friends, a cat-rescue origination.

Her work with the Cancer Institute Foundation is close to her heart, she said.

"I love the fact that the monies from that go to patient support," she said, adding that the foundation provides travel and lodging stipends to cancer patients and their families. "It really is an amazing thing that (the foundation) is doing and so worth supporting."

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.