Red Jeans Redemption Story

Behind the Artwork

Red Jeans Redemption: red jeans on fence

“I just couldn’t let it out,” said a 63-year-old woman, whom I’ll call Trudy. So, for years, the repeated childhood molestation remained hidden.

Sometimes shame, guilt, and fear keep secrets—hush hush. Before #MeToo, generations of women often suffered without a voice. They had no platform to talk about what happened to them.

After viewing The Scarlet Cord exhibit during ArtPrize 2014, dozens of older women dropped their heads on my shoulder and quietly wept. Even though the exhibit specifically highlighted sex trafficking awareness, the audience expanded the work to include childhood molestation and date rape.

I wondered, How many from those voiceless generations, women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, never told their story of abuse for the sake of protecting family members? Because the validity of their story would be questioned? These forgotten women, hiding decades of dirty secrets, never had a chance to process their trauma.

Through an art encounter, though, many of these women found a sort of release. Somehow the artwork touched something deep within the human spirit. After viewing the art, their secrets started spilling out.

My recent work about sexual trauma, Red Jeans Redemption, addresses this missing narrative. This project gives voice to all women as they record their stories of abuse on a pair of red jeans. As I sat in the kitchen with Trudy, her secret, which started when she was only 6 years old, manifested itself through an art project.

But the initial healing had actually started a few weeks before, as an elderly family member lay dying. In those sacred moments, Trudy got down on her knees and took her perpetrator’s hand. Then she broke shame’s power: “Dad, I forgive you for what you did to me.”

Trudy’s redemption moment came during a confrontation—adult to adult—with her childhood abuser, her own father. When Trudy began to talk about the past, the healing process started. After decades of silence, Trudy finally let it out.

Pamela’s art acknowledges #MeToo anger and responds by offering women a space to experience healing and peace.

Maria Fee, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Theology and Culture Fuller Theological Seminary

Healing in Art’s awareness exhibits consist of a variety of multimedia installations. Every work represents both the pain and the potential of each girl and boy enslaved in the commercial sex industry. Inspirational stories connect the audience to real survivors and encourage the healing process. Each exhibit can be expanded to include our Healing in Arts Station, with hands-on activities and community resources on how to get involved. For further educational opportunities, our presentation and film connect viewers to this social problem. Combined, these various pieces make the exhibit a more complete experience.

Red Jeans Redemption: Live Art Response

Behind the Artwork1 Comment

Red Jeans Redemption

Pamela Alderman with SEE Freedom

The Red Jeans Redemption exhibit gives voice to the hidden stories of sexual abuse, rape, and sex trafficking. This community-based work involves multiple layers of participation. First, several individuals donated funds or bought red jeans and left them on my front porch. Next, a couple of sexual abuse therapists agreed to make the project available to their clients.

One counselor wrote her own rape story on a pair of red jeans and hung them on her office wall. As clients noticed the jeans, they asked if they could participate by writing their stories too. To keep up with the increasing interest, we developed a rotation system: When the counselors returned the finished jeans, I dropped off or mailed additional jeans. Several women from Sacred Beginnings, a nonprofit that rescues victims of sexual exploitation, also recorded their sacred stories.

In February, the Red Jeans Redemption exhibit will be expanded to include Pamela’s live painting performance with an opportunity for audience engagement. For this segment, audience members will write ways they can help end exploitation on scraps of red denim. Then, Pamela, along with Anna Donahue and Susan Anderson, will incorporate the audience’s responses into a large canvas painting (detail from example painting shown). This live collaborative experience will remind visitors of the healing redemption found when shame and secrets are released and met with a compassionate response.

Join Us for Story Collective On February 25, 2020

Story Collective: A Night for Freedom curates an artistic gathering to support the work to create a future free from human trafficking for thousands in our community.

Story Collective will gather community members to showcase a new art exhibition by Pamela Alderman, the Red Jeans Redemption Project, an art experience which gives voice to survivors of exploitation. The red jeans display anonymous stories from survivors. This night we will learn together and participate in a live art response to the problem of exploitation.

Date:
Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Time:
6:15 PM – 8:30 PM EST

Location:
The Lit
61 Sheldon Avenue Southeast
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Tickets:
$55

Broken Wings No. 6: Healing Through Connection

Behind the Artwork

Broken Wings No. 6: Girls Court 2019 collaborative project

A collaborative work with Girls Court of Michigan and artist Pamela Alderman

Scientists don’t completely understand the internal mechanism that guides monarch butterflies. But every winter, millions of monarchs migrate south to the San Andres Mountains in Mexico. Some butterflies even end up on the same exact trees where their ancestors roosted. After the monarch butterflies make the long journey to Mexico, they huddle together on the trees to stay warm.

Like the butterflies, we gathered—the Girls Court participants, the 17th Circuit Court Family Division staff, and the artist. Sponge-painting and conversations filled the fun evening. After we finished painting, one of the girls drew a butterfly shape to provide guidelines for our paper mosaic.

The following week, everyone helped tear and glue the sponge-painted paper onto the butterfly. However, one of the girls, whom I’ll call Brittany, asked if she could just sit and watch.

All the other girls enjoyed the creative process throughout the December evening. The group talked, laughed, and ate candy canes. But about an hour later, a curious thing happened. I noticed that Brittany had finally joined everyone else, gluing paper pieces and laughing along with them.

Much of the butterfly’s life-cycle is a collective process. The butterflies especially need one another to survive the hard winter. When Brittany started to work on the collaborative project, she experienced the power of community. Such relational connections can help heal our deepest wounds and release hope to complete the journey.

Your art projects with Girls Court always amaze me. We never know what we are doing in advance, and then we see the work transform into something beautiful.

Marcela Moralez-Morris, Juvenile Probation and Girls Court of Michigan

Open Hands 2020

Behind the Artwork

Open Hands participants in Chicago

Last fall, Open Hands traveled to Chicago, following trips to San Francisco, Austin, and Washington, D.C., earlier this year. This interactive, traveling art experiment highlights the valuable contribution each person offers to the welfare and healing of our planet. Participants from diverse locations, backgrounds, and ages trace their handprint on a piece of a paper map. Then they respond to this question: “What is one thing you can do to help heal our broken world?” It’s fascinating to see how each person answers. After engaging in the work, one participant said, “This art made my heart feel good.”

Collage of Open Hands hand trace drawings

Where in the world will Open Hands pop up next? Watch for more exciting locations coming in 2020!

Our healing art involves you—because you matter!

Lifting Others on Wings of Hope

Behind the Artwork

Abstract butterfly made of handprints created by Pine Grove Learning Center students

Abstract work created by Pine Grove Learning Center students and Artist Pamela Alderman, with the generous contribution of Frames Unlimited.

To my surprise, special-education teacher Anne Aurand, my neighbor, left a bag in my mailbox filled with beautiful handprints painted by the profoundly challenged students from Pine Grove Learning Center. While spreading the creative treasures across my studio floor, I had a strong sense of the value of each precious student. I wanted to take my time to find a special idea of how to honor each student. A month later, as I arranged the handprints, an abstract butterfly shape emerged. This incredible piece portrays the physical gesture of open hands lifting each student on Wings of Hope.

Our healing art involves you—because you matter!

#Art #Hope #SpecialEducation #Collective #students #2020 #hands

The Season to Give

Behind the Artwork

Children creating interactive art projects in school workshop

What do you do with that loose change leftover from coffee dates? Or the unexpected $10 discovered in your coat pocket? Here’s a challenge: Empower someone else through hands-on art with your small gift of money. At Healing in Arts, our donor-supported work transforms human brokenness into opportunities for growth and wellness through interactive art.”

Artist and facilitator Pamela Alderman creates a new kind of community-based art that invites audience collaboration. This participatory art lets others speak and respond. As individuals or groups engage with artmaking through social justice art exhibits, school workshops, or community programs, many attest to the restorative power of art.

Pamela and her team witness this healing time after time. She recalls an incident at The Scarlet Cord installation, an exhibit that raises sex-trafficking awareness. “In response to The Scarlet Cord, a student fell into my arms. I held her as she cried. Little by little her story came: At 13, she had been raped by an older adult and another teen. Pain and devastation marked her young life.” The participatory art helped activate the healing process and gave the young teen an opportunity to release some of the hurt by verbalizing her story.

Young woman viewing The Scarlet Cord in Phoenix

As visitors interact with the work, they often identify their pain, and in some cases, they begin talking about deep wounds for the first time. The result? Participants experience healing—bit by bit—through redemptive art.

By serving others and encouraging soul care, we help unlock people and move them towards human flourishing or personal well-being. Your financial investment—large or small—plays a huge role in healing brokenness and restoring hope. Join our Healing in Arts team today!

Join Our Team!
We would be so grateful!

Our healing art involves you—because you matter!

Open Hands: Engaging Strangers

Behind the Artwork

Participants creating hand trace drawings for Open Hands in Washington DC“What would you do to help heal our broken world?”

This summer, Open Hands traveled to Washington, D.C., to creatively engage individuals by asking the above question. After circling the city twice to find parking, our art experiment started at the Washington monument. Then we traveled to the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Wall, the White House, and, finally, within sight of the U.S. Capitol. Individuals from all over the world actively participated by tracing their handprint on a piece of paper map and writing their personal answer for our global challenges.

Participants creating hand trace drawings for Open Hands in Washington DC

Such engaging art helps create positive change—in a culture of divorce, loneliness, suicide, and selfies. How? By inviting people to close their phones and open their hands to others. The work also addresses the “me” attitude pervading our world and promotes intentional, selfless love through open-handed living. This participatory art helps transform the closed fist to an open hand by connecting with one person at a time.

Participants creating hand trace drawings for Open Hands in Washington DC

What is one way you can open your hands and be part of the solution?

Being part of this art made my heart feel good. Participant

Find out more about Open Hands and be part of the solution.