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Research Visual artist looking for trauma surviors ready to anonymously share their dreams and flashback experiences

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Greetings

I am a visual artist from Southeastern Europe. My prefered media is painting mixed with photography especially alternative analog photographic processes. For my next project I am exploring PTSD as a result of traumatic events and I need stories from survivors. The reason I am using anonymus social media sites like this is because I feel that for many survivors of abuse and traumatic events, like myself these are maybe the only places where we feel safe and heard especially if for various reasons you can't afford therapy (yet). These sites are also notorious for being ''echo chambers'' when in reality they are helpful for many people who- when making a connection here with other survivors- can acknowledge and therefore deal with traumatic experience. My goal is to develop a sort of visual map, a representation of different images and symbols appearing after traumatic events via dreams, flashbacks, hallucinations and also common visual triggers. The artwork will consist of paintings and photographic prints made in different techinques – the motifs will be decided throught the collected stories.

For example, after my own abusive relationship I had a lot of dreams relating to water, especially of drowning – the visual imprint of these dreams was usually one gigantic wave of water. On the other hand, one of my friends had reapeated dreams of the same room in her house each time with different animals in it -snakes, spiders etc. For her the main visual imprint was the interior of her home.

So my main plea would be If you can spare some time to write me here, via inbox, or email (I will put it under my username description or I can send it via inbox - I am not sure I am allowed to share email adress here ) your experience with PTSD and traumatic events – It can be a dream, something visual that was/is your trigger, blurry flashback you had of different events etc. You don't have to describe the experience of trauma (unless you want to/ feel that the backstory is needed) just describe those visual manifestations of it occuring in dreams, flashbacks, hallucinations, triggers etc. The entire submssion is totally anonymus and in no way I will use any of the information provided in any other way then to produce an artwork. You can send me your experience via inbox, share it here, or send it on email.

I believe that sharing these experiences can help on a road to recovery and overall better understanding of traumatic experiences and treatments in general public. I want to offer artistic perspective on this problem because I feel like in the media post-traumatic experiences of visual nature are usually misrepresented and therefore contribute to the distored view and misunderstanding of trauma and PTSD. I also have a sort of selfish motif – making art is not just my profession but also a tool for working throught my own issues. I realised my previous works lacked vunerability – it is also something that contemporary art is not very fond of. These stories help me also put my own story out there and to be honest I am also terrified. So i hope we can all help each other grow 😊 Thank you all!

P.S. I am not a native english speaker so please excuse my grammar also I do not in any way dismiss traditional therapy for these issues nor do I consider myself qualified to deal with them- like I said I am just an artist and a person looking for some help
 
So my main plea would be If you can spare some time to write me here, via inbox, tumblr site or email (I will put it under my username description or I can send it via inbox - I am not sure I am allowed to share email adress here )
You can put your email address onto this thread. We do not have inboxing for members, here.

I have removed your Tumblr address, as we do not allow self-promotion.

Members may ask you questions on this thread. We encourage them to protect themselves and their identities here, so do not be surprised if you don't get any responses.

Members - if you are interested in reaching out to @Invisible_Images, I strongly suggest you (1) remember that not everyone is who they say they are, and (2) make a dedicated email account for any email you engage in with strangers.
 
I like the idea of an art exhibition raising awareness. And people's stories influencing art. But it feels, for me, too far too impersonal to email a stranger some highly personal information and for that to maybe or maybe not be used in an exhibition somewhere in the world.

The information provided is far far far less than the information requested. For me, this feels exploitative.
 
I am in the arts too and really this made me jump out of my chair. Our traumas aren't data to mine.

I suggest you work with an actual center with professional supervision and full face to face discussion with willing sufferers who can actually engage with your work and get to know you and not just to hand off information in the wild.

Believe me many places are looking for artists willing to give workshops in art therapy settings, I am certain this is a domain you can make a bigger difference than having your solo show.

Forgot to add, it's not being more artistically vulnerable to use others traumas. Just speak for yourself...
 
Greetings

I am a visual artist from Southeastern Europe. My prefered media is painting mixed with photography especially alternative analog photographic processes. For my next project I am exploring PTSD as a result of traumatic events and I need stories from survivors. The reason I am using anonymus social media sites like this is because I feel that for many survivors of abuse and traumatic events, like myself these are maybe the only places where we feel safe and heard especially if for various reasons you can't afford therapy (yet). These sites are also notorious for being ''echo chambers'' when in reality they are helpful for many people who- when making a connection here with other survivors- can acknowledge and therefore deal with traumatic experience. My goal is to develop a sort of visual map, a representation of different images and symbols appearing after traumatic events via dreams, flashbacks, hallucinations and also common visual triggers. The artwork will consist of paintings and photographic prints made in different techinques – the motifs will be decided throught the collected stories.

For example, after my own abusive relationship I had a lot of dreams relating to water, especially of drowning – the visual imprint of these dreams was usually one gigantic wave of water. On the other hand, one of my friends had reapeated dreams of the same room in her house each time with different animals in it -snakes, spiders etc. For her the main visual imprint was the interior of her home.

So my main plea would be If you can spare some time to write me here, via inbox, or email (I will put it under my username description or I can send it via inbox - I am not sure I am allowed to share email adress here ) your experience with PTSD and traumatic events – It can be a dream, something visual that was/is your trigger, blurry flashback you had of different events etc. You don't have to describe the experience of trauma (unless you want to/ feel that the backstory is needed) just describe those visual manifestations of it occuring in dreams, flashbacks, hallucinations, triggers etc. The entire submssion is totally anonymus and in no way I will use any of the information provided in any other way then to produce an artwork. You can send me your experience via inbox, share it here, or send it on email.

I believe that sharing these experiences can help on a road to recovery and overall better understanding of traumatic experiences and treatments in general public. I want to offer artistic perspective on this problem because I feel like in the media post-traumatic experiences of visual nature are usually misrepresented and therefore contribute to the distored view and misunderstanding of trauma and PTSD. I also have a sort of selfish motif – making art is not just my profession but also a tool for working throught my own issues. I realised my previous works lacked vunerability – it is also something that contemporary art is not very fond of. These stories help me also put my own story out there and to be honest I am also terrified. So i hope we can all help each other grow 😊 Thank you all!

P.S. I am not a native english speaker so please excuse my grammar also I do not in any way dismiss traditional therapy for these issues nor do I consider myself qualified to deal with them- like I said I am just an artist and a person looking for some help
I would be willing to help with this
 
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