Files
Download Thumbnail Sheet (2.4 MB)
Download Watching (15.5 MB)
Download Window Watching (15.5 MB)
Download Less Than Great (15.3 MB)
Download 2 Sides of the Story (21.3 MB)
Download FB_IMG_1605577796217.jpg (21 KB)
Download Picture1.png (32 KB)
Download FB_IMG_1605577790034.jpg (32 KB)
Download FB_IMG_1605577709369.jpg (43 KB)
Download 124765348_3319083064880169_5497083201110781492_n (1).jpg (78 KB)
Academic Level at Time of Creation
Senior
Date of Creation
Fall 10-23-2020
Artist Statement
Changed Trauma
In this collection, I am exploring my past trauma that I have obtained as a result of the abuse I experienced years ago. Although my experiences from the 5 years of abuse were bad, the good now overrides the bad. Through these experiences, I have grown into a strong independent person as I have gotten over them through forgiveness and time. Often associated with place, I have never forgotten the memories but I continue to grow from them. Time is a heavy component in this collection. To emphasize this, I used black and white photography to make the places resemble aged moments in time. My influence for this exhibition is the reappearance of past abusers into my life and the memories that have resurfaced. Throughout my work, I will be exploring my trauma as a means to define who I am today. I am using digital black and white photography to give life to these traumatic experiences. I am drawn to photography as an art medium by its life-giving properties, as photographs often give life to experiences, objects, or places. I often use landscape photography as an exploration of the world, people, abandoned places, and amongst other things. Through my photographs, I intend to form a connection with viewers with similar or different backgrounds and evoke vulnerability while allowing the viewers to explore their own trauma. This collection as a whole is an exploration of traumatic experiences that focuses on remembrance and growth. As time passes and your trauma ages, you still carry it with you, sometimes by place or people, as it either haunts you or encourages growth.
Advisor/Mentor
Michelle Burdine/Micheal Martin
Description
The theme of the art in my show is life stories of things I have gone through. I will be using storytelling to tell stories of my trauma from my abusive past. In the show, there will be 4 photographs being displayed. I will write a brief sentence about the traumatic memory that comes with them. The titles of my photographs will also allude to those stories. One of the photographs features a window and is labeled Watching. The story that is written beside it is describing the invasion of privacy I experienced when living with my mom and stepdad, as he often watched us outside our window.
Another one of my photographs is called Window Watching. This photograph features a window in the back of a house I used to live in. This window is related to a memory of constantly being watched and a remembrance of my first survival rebellion. I displayed four 18x24 photographs, framed in black frames. I ordered them chronologically along the wall of the gallery to show the time and order of occurrence. In my art, I am trying to create an experience where the viewers can take a glimpse into the time of trauma in order to deal with their own related trauma.
Photo Credit
Flyer- Murray State Art Department
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Free, Jessica, "Changed Trauma" (2020). B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499). 44.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art499/44