Masking Pains

G. Rice


 Image Description: digital drawing of a cartoonish person standing in a grey and plain landscape, looking up at the viewer with a hand extended forward, offering a hand shake. The person is wearing a polo shirt and long pants along with a mask showing a smiling face, all the same color as the background. The person is vibrant blue, their arms, hair, and exhausted eyes visible.

 

“Masking Pains” is about the difficulty in trying to get employment and housing when you’re forced to hide your symptoms as best you can in interviewing processes.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: G. Rice

 

I’m 23 years old and have been drawing digitally for around a decade now. I started drawing regularly after discovering anime at 12 but my current art and writing is more inspired by the humour and surrealism of the 90s and 00s cartoons I grew up on. I’m a very big fan of horror in multiple mediums (games, art, writing, movies, etc.) and am part of goth, punk, and metal head subcultures which have influenced the style and content of my art.

Letters I never sent to you

“Letters I never sent to you” by Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams. 

The series revolves around the artist’s exploration of her experiences with violence and her attempts to communicate those experiences to an important person in her life. The series consists of one piece in transition, creating several artworks, each depicting different emotions and themes related to the artist’s trauma.

The first piece, titled “Gaslighted,” is a pencil and charcoal close-up self-portrait of the artist’s eyes and nose. It represents the moment when she reached out to the person she expected to love and support her, only to be met with disbelief and accusations of fabricating stories.

The second piece, called “Unsent,” features a self-portrait of the artist’s crying face against a black background. The word “LISTEN” floats in the artwork, while ripped-up letters that were never sent to the person are collaged into the piece. The text fragments express the artist’s desperate attempt to convey the truth about her experience with sexual violence and her struggles with its aftermath.

The third piece, titled “Suffer,” shows the transformation of the artist’s face from pain to rage, eventually turning into a black bear. The artwork incorporates Miwok words, representing descriptive terms for various aspects of the environment. The bear symbolizes the artist’s intense emotions and the anger she feels at not being believed.

In the final transformation, depicted in “Bear Eating People,” the artist’s sad self-portrait is consumed by red, yellow, and black shadow fingers. The Miwok term for “bear eating people” replaces the word “listen,” symbolizing the artist’s transition into a vengeful bear that represents her rage and frustration at the lack of belief and support she encountered.

Close up of rage and pain

Gaslighted

Media: Pencil and charcoal close-up self-portrait of my eyes and nose. I called the person who should love me the deepest and told them what happened. They said I was making up stories.

Listen

Unsent

Media: Charcoal, pencil, and collaged words, images, unsent letters, and a recycled 2021 calendar A self-portrait of my face crying. The word LISTEN floats on a black background with my crying face being pulled into the darkness by red and black fingers. The text is made up of words from ripped up letters I never sent her. The pieces of letters say, “This is no lie. It was sexual violence. Crisis. I can’t decide how it makes me as an adult person. Manic again, scary, unthinkable. Not neurotypical skills. And this is what I remember.” There is a winding stairway from my temple and my chin. At the end of the spiral stairs at the bottom of the piece are boats facing away from the pain.

Medium: Charcoal and pencil, photography. Bear Eating People In its final transformation, suffer. My face is overcome with red, yellow, and black shadow fingers-pulling on me. The Miwok word for “bear eating people,” or “Hutcumi,” appears where the word listen once appeared. My sad self-portrait is transforming into a murderous bear to express the rage I feel at not being believed.

Suffer

Media: Charcoal and pencil, photography. The transformation of my face from pain to rage, from human to black bear. Miwok words are filled with descriptive terms for things found in the environment that you might encounter and interact with. For example, you may come across a hairy bear, or a lazy bear. Yosemite is the word for murderous bear.

Bear Eating People

Media: Charcoal and pencil, photography. In its final transformation, suffer. My face is overcome with red, yellow, and black shadow fingers-pulling on me. The Miwok word for “bear eating people,” or “Hutcumi,” appears where the word listen once appeared. My sad self-portrait is transforming into a murderous bear to express the rage I feel at not being believed.

Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams

About the artist

Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams is a fat and sassy thoyewa (disabled) Miwok cisgender assa (woman) with salt and pepper hair. She is smiling into the camera and is wearing a pink floral shirt in the picture. Cierra is a survivor of poly violence with CPTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder and is on the bipolar spectrum. Cierra is a Prevention Specialist at Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where she co-founded Indiana Disability Justice.

Rise: A Sculpture Created by Tina A

This is a sculpture of a phoenix rising from the ashes. The red and yellowbird has massive wings. It looks. Proud and ready to face the next challenge!
This is the sideview of the phoenix, which gives another view of the massive wrings.

SCULPTURE TITLE: Rise

ARTIST: Tina A.

MATERIALS: Acrylic on Ceramic

I Am A Survivor: Luna Eversong-Kloss

The video starts with a woman holding two blank pieces of paper taped together. She has a black tank top, and all that is seen is her torso and arms. As she is crumpling the papers, phrases appear on the screen. They are in a bulleted list here to signify when one phrase ends and the other begins.

  • You’re crazy
  • I don’t think you should hang out with them.
  • Next, the word “wh*r*” appears.
  • I’ll get you back
  • all your threats
  • assault
  • stalking me
  • isolating me
  • hiding my meds
  • no one will ever love you like I do
  • You’re a burden

By this time the papers are in a ball.

Now she is uncrumpling the papers to reveal family photos with the words, “I AM A Survivor,” written in red below the pictures.

 

The pictures are an adult female in a black tank top snuggling a child while writing something, a mom holding a newborn baby, a male child about 4 or 5 held close to a man’s face, and two wedding pictures.

At the end there is a black screen with, “Video Art by Luna Eversong-Kloss.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Luna Eversong-Kloss

Luna Eversong-Kloss is a tattoo model, avocate, write, and mother of two. She also has cerebral palsy.

Luna is standing with her crutches. She has tattoos and a lip piercing. She has long brown hair’with blonde streak. Her head is cocked, and she is smiling broadly. She is wearing a black shirt with skulls and flowers.