Medium: acrylic on 30" x 40" canvas

Artist Statement: This piece was created by 7 survivors who came together with their advocates and created this piece over the span of four half day service days at the YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment's Drop-In Human Trafficking Day Center. The style is for each person to have their hands-on the canvas. The stroke, tap of finger, and overall movement of the body tells a story. The quicker the motion could mean frustration and anger. The slow, more defined lines could be calm and at peace finally. The thought was for this to be an abstract piece that lets the motions and movement speak through the layers of the paint and mixing of the colors.

This piece is important to the artists for a multitude of reasons. Many of those reasons had to do with a feeling of belonging; of being a part of "their" Day Center. They expressed this as a very relaxing project and a way to get their emotions out. They beamed at the thought of contributing something to a place that provides life-saving, life-affirming, care and attention. The following are some comments we collected from the survivors who created this piece:
"This is a great way to express my emotions"
"I loved doing this"
" We should do this more often. I needed this today"
"I LIKE the way it feels when I paint on this canvas! I feel like...like smooth, like the paint!"
"I love that we can make something together that will make some money for this place! I don't know what I would do if I couldn't come here!"