A Girl’s Story

This project started with a vision. One day I noticed a crumpled-up rag in my studio and felt the urge to unravel it. Once unraveled, I saw a little girl’s dress. A young part of myself, my guide, had specific instructions: I was to embroider the word help in red thread on a white piece of fabric and sew it over the most vulnerable area of the dress, the vulva. Throughout the next weeks other dresses appeared within the discarded rags piled in my studio and I received similar instructions. I understood that my young self was telling me that my Unsilenced Women project needed to include Unsilenced Girls because: Silenced Girls become Silenced Women. A female will only become whole when she is unsilenced at all stages of her life. The paintings, dresses and sculptures included in this project tell the story of a girl growing up in a world where her thoughts and feelings were dismissed and her bodily autonomy violated. Her story is one version of a tragically common tale of growing up in a misogynistic world. The consequences of this prevailing social dynamic need to be heard, acknowledged and challenged.