Up shit creek (without a paddle): MFA Thesis - Sculpture

Abstract

I am exploring the use of art as a means of healing from childhood trauma that I experienced growing up as a lower middle-class girl in Appalachia. I use imagery from old family photos, visual, and sensory memory to recreate my distorted memories. I am working to find some sort of empathy for my family members who created these traumatic experiences for me growing up. Trauma theory explains that the individual needs to relive and revisit traumatic memories in order to heal from them and I am attempting that through reliving not only my experiences, but trying to reexamine others’ experiences and the intergenerational trauma that lead to the way I was raised.