Caged

When dealing with issues of mental health, it is very easy for people to feel CAGED. Where to turn, what to say, who to speak to? Is the person I am divulging my worries to SAFE? What can I do? Does anyone love me?  These could be questions that the women in this piece would be asking themselves. Caged was created to make others aware of emotions and feelings of those needing emotional support. When creating this piece, however, it was also therapeutic for the artist to be able to express through picture emotions she has felt, and emotions other people she has helped have felt.

“Beautiful quilts” about difficult subjects can draw the observer into communication with the artist. Shame, guilt, fear – questions about WHY did this happen to me? or Why am I feeling “this way?” Trauma is experienced by many but not always voiced. It is my desire to express the inexpressible through art quilts – as a spokesperson for the oppressed and for those who need to more fully understand the pain others feel, perhaps even identifying some buried feelings within.