Carrying trauma comes with shame and I have always worried about the burden and discomfort I would place on other people by making myself known. By communicating the ugliness and messiness of my experience, I believed I would only be harming others. Also, people don’t want to hear about it. Society does not hold a favorable view of those who are traumatized and mentally ill in a way that is not easily romanticized. Part of this is because it makes them uncomfortable, so they look away and ignore. The final cruelness of trauma is how easily it isolates you, and truthfully there is no easy way to talk about it.
This is what inspired me to create my work, The Humanesque (Communications). Using not only my own experience, I listened to the experiences of others I have met who have similarly felt alone and ignored by society. I hope that my genuine portrayals of how it feels to live with trauma confront the societal biases placed on us and provides some visibility for these issues. I want my work to resonate with other traumatized individuals, no matter what kind of trauma they have experienced.
Viewable at thehumanesque.tumblr.com