SI #7

I don't have a lot of memories from my childhood, and that kind of freaks me out. When my sister talks about bad things that happened to us, most of the time I have no idea what she's talking about. I usually have a feeling that it did or could have happened, but I have no actual recollection of it actually happening. I also experience a thing where I can't differentiate my memories from dreams; with a lot of my memories I can't tell if it actually happened or if I made it up. I wanted this piece to represent childhood trauma and disassociation.

I included building blocks toppling over, referencing an unstable environment or problems at home. To add more interest I decided to use colored pencils to draw on the walls of the box; I wanted to emulate how a child would draw on the wall by using my left and right hands. Children's drawings can indicate a lot and show things that are emotionally significant. The drawings all over the box could also relate to escapism, when dealing with trauma, especially chronic trauma, it is common for a person to use media to distract them self from the pain that they are dealing with. 

This piece just started out as me playing around with what I could do with colored pencils and the idea of a doll without a face to represent trauma as a young child. Then I decided to create a final piece with it during my district's Art Olympics. We planned ahead and had 4 hours to complete our pieces. I also got to showcase two of my favorite works from this year at the event. Even though my piece didn't win any prizes, I am so proud of what I accomplished.