I few days ago I put it out there that I am taking on three women who would like to do Reclamation Works to heal traumas they held. Within minutes of posting responses started pouring in. Women and their stories started filling my inbox. It was at once honoring and devastating. We always hear the statistics of how many children are maltreated (1 in 10) or sexually abused (1 in 16) or how often women are raped in America (every 2minutes), but to see these numbers played out in your own friends group is pretty brutal. Especially considering that many of my friends didn't even see the post.
Ack.
I soaked this in. I responded to my friends. I doubled my open spots. And felt the battle cry inside me roar. This work is a wild thing to do (makes for a helluva first date conversation) and I am often approached by people who love the look of my work but are wishing it had a different subject matter. For whatever reason, they are not currently desiring a huge vulva for their dining room (no idea why not ;). In fact, some of the responses I got were inquiries of this nature; people hoping that by Reclamation Work, I meant I was doing something (anything) else. A nude? A landscape? Even just pure abstract?
I would love to do nudes. I'm sure someday I will. And I'm sure they will be very pretty. And coordinate well with people's couches. The trick is, if I have only 5 or 10 hours to paint in a week, and I have the choice to either witness a woman, help heal her deepest traumas and give witness to her soul, and take that wild journey, or do something 'pretty'… Well? I am going to go with option A for a hundred, Alex. It is such an extraordinary honor to get to do this work with people. To get to see past the layers of personality and superficial veneers we usually show each other and instead dive right in to the heart of who they are, what they've been through, and what they want… It's some heavy (and humbling) magic.
So the day I figure out how to make a nude or a landscape into that wild of an adventure and make that big of an impact on someone's life, I will paint them late into the night. And make millions. ;) But for now, I will just have to stick with pussies. And keep doing the only work I know how to do, woman by woman, to heal this hurting planet.
So. What is a Reclamation work? Women come to me to be painted for all sorts of reasons (pre-wedding, post-divorce, curiosity, desire to know themselves etc) but the reclamation works are specific to women who want to reclaim themselves from a particular (or series or particular) traumatic event. The first one I did (that gave birth to this whole process), was with a woman from india whose mother was a prostitute. I had her write her story out on thick paper and then painted her pussy over it. It was intense. And beautiful. Another, was with a woman who had been raped three times and molested since she was 6. With her, I stretched a huge canvas and had her write all over it (everything from "get your fucking hands off me" to "I am worthy") while I held space. I think I painted her over that while we talked about what she was releasing and who she was becoming. It was fucking intense. And changed her life.
Each one is different (just as each woman and her story are different), but the common theme with Reclamation Works is the intention of release and healing through the artwork. The women are seen, their story is heard, and we go back to the scene of the crime, and reclaim her in beauty. Powerful stuff. I usually do these for free (and/or sell the works and donate a chunk of the proceeds) and they tend to be a fairly intensive process for me, so I only offer a few every so often. For the upcoming show I will be offering 6. If you would like to be one of them please let me know. If you would like to help make this possible for more women please donate, purchase a work, or contact me for other ways to help. It takes a village, people. And it heals the village.
xo
R AMIEL