As I open up and apply paint to my surface, within me sounds memories from my childhood and teenage years- before I know it, the frame is filled with urgent, haphazard shapes and strokes. Both dramatic and fleeting linework dances to create deviant forms; the Dogs, both representing my mother and me. The orbiting in my compositions recall the cyclical nature of trauma responses being taught to and by my female predecessors. I illuminate the form in my mother and I. Investigations of our relationship reveals a mournful truth. I feel a sense of relief, because I understand now what I was previously blind to in the whirlwind of the orbit. If we do not address our history, we will be doomed to re-live it. What does it mean to be free?

Result #1

—Alexis Smith

Result #2

—Lori Begich

Result #3

I ask myself. And, looking at these works again, I feel a sense of hope, of that elusive freedom. I am living in a world of meaning, a world of justice.

Result #4

—Susan C.

Result #5

—Krista K.