Flight, Fight or Freeze. The theme of my work centers on the body’s automatic, built-in system designed to protect us from threat or danger. Cortisone, the main hormone released in response to trauma, shrinks your hippocampus, trapping moments of shock and leaching onto bits and pieces of the brain. Through painting my “memories” I dive back into my hippocampus, recalling the very moments in which it atrophied. Memories are subjective, so by projecting my work onto canvas I gain back the objectivity, the reality of it all.
In each painting of this series I painted scenes of a little girl being watched. Each piece is different, yet features that same girl and her reaction. I explore the sensation of immobility, or freezing, through painting the memories of my trauma.
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