Art: The Painted Doors

Lili and I recently visited the home of our friend Q for an art-making, long-walk-taking afternoon. When we arrived, we discovered that Q (who prefers to remain anonymous) has been covering his room with a growing collection of calligraphic graffiti. I took a few quick photos, which give an idea of what it looks like.

Turning one’s space into an evolving work of art is fun. It can also stimulate a lot of growth, and helps build feelings of ownership and engagement. This can be especially important for people who typically feel invalidated, powerless, or dissociated.

We can apply this concept in many settings: schools, public spaces, homes, offices, prisons, and more. The key is that the people that actually live or work in a particular place are encouraged to alter the space in their own way, on an ongoing basis. If direct alteration isn’t allowed, covering surfaces with paper, wood, canvas, or dry-erase/chalk board can work as well.

Changes don’t have to be all-encompassing. Even small, well-marked areas designated for open alteration can make a big difference. In fact, it’s pretty easy to implement in a way that will work almost anywhere. In my experience, the hardest part is to get ourselves (and others) to relinquish a little bit of our perceived environmental control… which I think is a worthy endeavor and reward in itself. Continue reading Art: The Painted Doors

Art: A Lovely Grin

"Untitled" painting by Deborah Figueroa

Untitled” by Deborah Figueroa (acrylic paint on canvas).

Lili’s 14-year-old sister Deborah made this painting. Deborah is a wonderful, brilliant person, and her art and writing are uniquely fantastic. Her perspectives and ideas are really interesting. The years of terrible child abuse have broken Deborah down pretty far, but she is still growing and doing the best she can every day. (See this post and this post to learn about the abuse Lili’s sisters are going through. UPDATE: After a lengthy CPS case we are now guardians for the children, and they live safely with us.) Deborah really cares a lot about her sisters, and tries to do whatever she can to help and protect them. I hope Deborah will keep writing and making art. I’m always excited to see anything she creates.

Art: 500 Ghosts

"Untitled" painting by Ailinn Camacho

Untitled” by Ailinn Camacho (acrylic paint on canvas).

This painting was created by Ailinn, Lili’s 11-year-old sister. Ailinn is awesome! Even with all the abuse she is suffering, she is already trying to speak up for herself and protect her boundaries. (See this post and this post to learn about the abuse Lili’s sisters are going through. UPDATE: After a lengthy CPS case we are now guardians for the children, and they live safely with us.) Ailinn always tries her best, and cares for her sisters and us.

Ailinn also made the “paleolithic tool” seen in the Cosplay Gas Mask post. One weekend when their mother was gone we took the girls out near a dry creek bed, where we all smashed rocks together until an appropriately long, sharp fragment chipped off. (This is a basic technique of ancient tool-making.) Ailinn found a stick under a nearby fallen tree, to which she lashed the stone shard to form an actual semi-functional tool. I hope Ailinn is proud of her work. We certainly are!

Art: Two-Sided Silhouette

"Untitled Silhouette" painting by Janet Gutierrez

Untitled Silhouette” by Janet Gutierrez (acrylic paint on repurposed canvas).

Lili’s 13-year-old sister Janet made this beautiful painting. Janet is an amazing, strong, kind person; it has been wonderful getting to know her and help support her. Janet and her sisters create awesome powerful art, and Janet also makes one-of-a-kind clothing and cosplay accessories.

Janet and her other two sisters Deborah and Ailinn continue to report being severely abused by their mother. Child Protective Services is involved, but does little more than give the mother a “stamp of approval” to further abuse her children.

We visit the children every week, and this is what we see (and what they tell us): they do not get fed, they do not get appropriate nutrition or physical health care, they live in filthy unclean conditions, they are psychologically tortured and bullied by their mother every day, they are isolated within their home and physically prevented from leaving, they are exposed to dangerous people (pedophiles, etc.), they do not get appropriate mental health support, they do not get any academic support, they do not get any emotional or personal support, and so much more. The children also report that their mother brutally bullies and harasses them late at night and early in the morning until they are too traumatized to go to school.

CPS has done nothing to address any of these issues, despite significant evidence from us, the children’s therapist and teachers, and the children themselves. Almost every day the children report more terrible things being done to them. The social workers accept the mother’s inconsistent lies and do not engage in adequate investigation to uncover even simple facts. (For example, she tells them she works as a landscaper, when in fact she doesn’t have a job and sleeps all day.) They even help the mother create excuses for school and doctors to explain why all of her children are missing school for months at a time.

Every day, Lili cries in silence for the torture that is killing her sisters (who are also like her daughters, since Lili’s mother has forced her children to provide all care for each other for many years)– and for her own powerlessness to stop it.

This piece depicts a silhouette with two faces, surrounded by a wonderfully-detailed “stained glass” effect in the background.

UPDATE #1: The children’s therapist filed a complaint to CPS regarding the social workers’ illegal and unprofessional actions. Within days the therapist received a call from CPS, informing her that the children were being removed from her therapy. This was the only response the therapist received regarding her official complaint. The children were then transferred against their will to a new CPS-paid therapist. The same worker is still assigned to the case, and the children report to us that the worker continues to engage in abusive and unprofessional behaviors. The children report that when they told their CPS worker they feel unsafe and want to keep their old therapist, the worker told them they were “being immature,” insulted them, and said she thought they were lying about being abused by their mother.

UPDATE #2: We successfully gained guardianship of the children, and they now live with us! CPS concluded “no evidence of wrongdoing,” but were still forced to take action because they could not deny that the children had not attended school for 7-18 months, lived in filth, had poor hygiene, were rapidly deteriorating with severe mental health struggles, and were continuing to say they were being abused. So the abusive mother got off scot-free, but the children are safely with us.

Guerrilla Art: Speak

"Speak" painting by Lili Lopez

Guerrilla art against abuse: “Speak” by Lili Lopez (acrylic paint, glitter, glue).

Lili made “Speak” as a gift for her abused cousin. It is a reminder for her cousin to keep speaking up for herself, even if others won’t listen.

Continue reading Guerrilla Art: Speak

Conflict

A simple mistake: Thinking conflict will make things better.

A worse mistake: Thinking things are better just because there is less direct conflict.

Evil– real evil– thrives unnoticed in the cracks between such distinctions.

Continue reading Conflict

Guerrilla Art: Eye See You

"We See You, and We Are Not Afraid" guerilla art by Lili Lopez

Guerrilla art against child abuse: “We See You, and We Are Not Afraid” by Lili Lopez (spray paint, permanent marker, and collage).

Lili made this artwork in support of her three younger sisters, who have been physically, sexually, and psychologically abused their whole lives– and still have to live with their worst abuser until they are at least 18 years old. The piece contains five portraits: the staring eyes of Lili, her three sisters, and me.

The artwork is a daily reminder to the children to be strong, unified, and protect their boundaries. It is also a message to their abusive mother that we are watching her. No matter how many lies she tells and how many things she gets away with, the five of us will always see the truth.

Lili and her sisters placed the piece in their mother’s apartment. It now hangs in the living room entranceway, directly opposite the front door.

UPDATE: After a lengthy struggle with Child Protective Services, we have become the children’s guardians. They now live with us, and this piece hangs in our dining room. 🙂