"Do you see a victim or a survivor?"
I wanted to portray people who have survived great trauma. Not to show them in despair, but to reveal the strength that exists in spite of it, even the joy that comes in the rescue. The images feature a photograph of a tree I took, a picture of men freed from a concentration camp during the Holocaust, girls marching for Child Labor rights, an African American slave, girls rescued from the sex trafficking industry, an image of "Hope" with an anchor, and people receiving food from the Salvation Army during the Great Depression. The quotes read, "We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated" by Maya Angelou, and "We've been thrown down, but we haven't broken" from 2 Corinthians 4 in the Message Bible.
I used papers, paint, watercolors, ink, chalks, and stamps to create this mixed media painting.