A young woman sat on the curb—crying—after viewing The Scarlet Cord. A young man sat next to her with his arm tight around her. Five minutes later, they were still sitting on the curb, and she was still crying. So I decided to approach them. Kneeling down, I asked the young woman, “Are you okay?”…
A woman questioned one of the statistics in my story about Jenny. She said, “You’re exaggerating about the part in the story where it says that ‘her door swings thirty times a night,’ right?” I responded, “Some handlers, or pimps, demand that the children under their control serve thirty clients a night, others demand twenty.…
Forced (in progress), String on linen, 19½ x 56 inches, 2014 “Child prostitute” is a misnomer. Children are forced into the commercial sex trade; they don’t volunteer to be abused. Brutal pimps exploit vulnerable boys and girls in the underworld of the trafficking industry—because the buyers of sex demand younger and younger prey. FACT: The…
After viewing The Scarlet Cord at ArtPrize, a young teen fell into my arms. I held her and drew her head close as she cried. A couple of minutes later, she pulled away and, then, she quickly embraced me again. Her words tumbled out so quickly that a couple of different times I had to…
This short video produced by 100.5 The River features The Scarlet Cord:
Raped, Yarn on loom, 17 x 49 inches, 2014 Children suffer traumatic pain every time they are trafficked—or raped. For many of these victims, the sexual abuse started at a very young age when the boys or girls were molested by someone they knew. Just as a ruptured appendix releases toxic poisons, sexual abuse releases…