The Art of Suzzan Blac

There's so much pain in this artwork... just wow... 

This is taken from Suzzan Blac's blog: http://www.suzzanb.com/gallery.php

Also here:

http://theartofsuzzanblac.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-prostituted.html

If this intrigues you, please go check it out on her website and continue to read and look at her art there.  The below copy and pasted content just doesn't do it justice.  Just amazing.

I am a survivor of severe and prolonged physical, psychological and sexual abuse, which began by the hands of my mother, who physically and emotionally abused me every day of my life. She also enabled one of her boyfriends to sexually abuse me. I have experienced domestic abuse, both physical and psychological. I also grew up knowing paedophiles, who sexually abused me from when I was an infant. I have experienced numerous rapes. When I was sixteen years old I was abducted into sex trafficking and forced into pornography and prostitution. I have experienced PTSD, including self abuse, depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol dependency and suicide attempts. I feel that there are many missed opportunities to utilise the valuable experiences of survivors of abuse. My secondary goal is to work alongside qualified mental health agencies, social workers, professors, police agencies and the judicial system. In order to assist them in a better understanding by my experiences and insight, which could expand and enhance their teaching programmes and/ or knowledge base.

This was proven, when I collaborated with professor Claudia Paola Tapia of Barry university, Florida. Who utilised both my art and my insight into the teaching programmes of trainee social workers. I have painted forty images that portray my own personal story of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. They are my expression of not just a depiction of pain and trauma, but how abuse made me feel. And also the consequences and reverberations of secondary victimisation. I paint to give a tangible voice and resonance to other victims and survivors who cannot express their own atrocities, who have suffered at the hands of others. I am now an advocate for children and adults who have been abused.

"Silence empowers the perpetrators and impairs the victims."

The Prostituted.

The prostitutor

I am no longer going to refer to children and women who sell their bodies - as prostitutes or indeed sex workers.

These (mainly) victims, do not 'choose' to sell sex in exchange for money.

They are 'prostituted' by pimps, who make incredible amounts of money by the persuasive or threatening coercion of the vulnerable and by abducting or purchasing sex slaves.

Global prostitution generates an annual revenue of over a $100 billion and it is even more lucrative if you own a sex slave.

So, who do you think reaps the rewards? 

The prostituted...

Or the iniquitous pimps, who will sell children, substance dependants, the poverty stricken and even their own girlfriends and wives?

Not to mention that the fastest growing criminal industry is sex trafficking and slavery. In 2009, the united nations stated that about 79% of human trafficking is for prostitution.  I believe that figure has, and is still rising daily.

Let's not forget the untold violence imposed upon the prostituted and the extremely high risk of homicides.

Since the advent, accessibility and availability  of hard core pornography. Many more sex buyers are acting out their most deviant and violent fantasies on the prostituted. They also don't actually care, if the child or woman is a victim of trafficking. And as for the false belief that there are 'fewer rapes' because of prostitution. Well... just look on the internet at this rape culture of ours. 

Besides which -the prostituted are being raped many times a day.

And when I read that social services, police agencies,the media,society and the judiciaries have imposed victim blaming and criminalised young girls for prostitution..my blood boils.

The answer is rather simple. Turn the prostitution industry around. Instead of criminalising the prostitutes or legalising prostitution...

Criminalise the PIMPS and the BUYERS..and ensure aid and support to the 'prostituted'.

ABASEMENT OF DOLLS

These images are a social message which depicts the sexual conditioning and exploitation of females. Many of us fall victim to this on many different levels, from the moulding of young girls, groomed to become just mere ornaments and sexual objects in order to appeal to and gratify males ... to the obsessive pursuit of self-beautification, fueled by the media's ideal of physical perfection, something that is both unrealistic and unobtainable that can also have detrimental effects ranging from insecurity to eating disorders and plastic surgery.

My primary vexation lies within the realms of pornography, something that has become so socially acceptable, it beggars belief! Even "playboy" merchandise is now aimed at girls as young as eight. Playboy is not a cute bunny, it is a global pornographic business which debases and exploits thousands of young women. If people knew of the horrendous logistics behind this atrocious industry, I'm sure that they would consider it both abhorrent and intolerable.

   
   

I CAN'T MAKE MY WORLD RIGHT

A series of new works depicting the human condition.

   
   
   

THE THINGS THAT PEOPLE DON'T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT

These "things" that occur day in, day out to thousands of people who cannot talk about them because firstly, there can never be total closure for the victim—because the psychological pain and trauma remains, exacerbated by secondary victimization, primarily stigmatization, isolation, abandonment and condemnation—and secondly, the lack of knowledge and compassion of people, many of which are of the "just world hypothesis"—those that believe that the world is intrinsically fair and do not wish to believe the callousness that so many humans can inflict on others. They would rather sweep those "unpleasantries" under their fairytale rugs.

I hope to be a voice on the victims'/survivors' behalf, so I dedicate these paintings to them.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

OTHER PAINTINGS