! : A Survival Project

Abstract

I have been making art about my trauma since I first came to Purchase four years ago. After a couple of semesters in Theatre and Performance, and a couple of semesters in Photography, I designed a major called Visual Performance. This program allowed me to explore various creative outlets that I then applied to my work. Studying different mediums made my experiences more accessible to me. I was able to identify what had happened in my life, and work through it day by day. Coping through creating has helped me greatly, but has also been incredibly emotionally draining. I've found myself getting stuck in making work about things people don't want to think about, or don't want to know, and sometimes, things I haven't been ready to accept. This project is/was my final culmination of photographic and performance work at SUNY Purchase, but also an attempt at putting my experiences to bed for the time being. The subject matter of this piece matters. Our stories matter. Progress is a continuous process.