The work I created as an early artist was very experimental. I focused mainly on the hobbies and items I enjoyed. I began to become a more confident young woman as I progressed through college and wanted to create work inspired by young women on a journey to find their own confidence through struggle. As my junior year of college started, this confidence was stripped away as I experienced an act of sexual violence. I now create art as therapy and protest to discuss violence against women. Stains of Violence places emphasis on the victim-blaming stated by aggressors as “justification” for their actions. It also provides a platform for victims to find their own voice. The articles of clothing serve as a vehicle for this language. The clothing is sourced from women’s closets, including my own, that have the memory of sexual violence attached to them. Not every story is physically shown on the clothing because I wanted to give survivors a choice to share and donate at their own discretion because control was once taken away from them during the attack. Sexual violence is now forever stained on the articles of clothing where the fabric, like the body, stores memories.

From my own experience, it’s very hard to move past trauma caused by sexual violence because it takes a toll on your mental and physical health. It is important for me to contribute to the larger conversation of this epidemic because of my own struggles and hearing these same fears expressed by others close to me. Those traumas stick with survivors for the rest of their lives.