“A Faceless Crime”

2017 | 9”x12” | Mixed-media:
Prismacolor Verithin red/blue colored pencil, Derwent Inktense pencils, white charcoal, and water brush on textured white paper.
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// TW: Sexual Trauma //

I remember how I got goosebumps and a lump formed in my throat the first time my dear and ever-inspiring friend Sarah Marie Hawkins told me about her project “Faceless No More.”

In a country that both stigmatizes and dismisses what defines sexual assault, victims are often left without a voice. It's my opinion that telling one's story--being heard--is crucial to healing. What Sarah has done with her illustrative photography is not only offer a supportive platform for the telling of these stories, but she has helped us to reclaim the vulnerability that was taken from us. I look upon these women in their quiet fragility and strength. Here we stand in graceful defiance of submission and shame. We are the phoenixes among the ashes of what has happened to us.

These are my legs, my calves, and the thighs he pried open. He was my friend and pen pal, a fellow writer and observer of the world. In my own way, I loved him. But when he ignored my pleas, it wasn't just the word "no" that was nullified as it travelled from my mouth to his ears. All words lost their meaning and potency. I became a rambling mute, forever talking but believing my tongue made no sound. My pen scrawled paragraphs that I felt had no right to be read.

Yet as my fingers brushed my text on the exhibit walls (the excerpts of mine and my sisters' stories), grazing over red dots of solidarity and resonance stuck in place by members of the public as they moved through the corridors of ART STREET Sacramento... I realized that while he had taken my words away, Faceless had given them back.

I can only respond by quoting a message written in red dots beside my photograph: "I love you." 🔴