Created for The Art of Care gallery by Planned Parenthood. This portrait honors the strength of a survivor who endured severe intimate partner violence while pregnant. The person who should have protected her instead inflicted physical abuse during one of the most vulnerable periods that a human could ever possibly face, forever changing her experience of motherhood, womanhood, and survival. The violence did not end with just cuts and bruises—it reshaped how she carried grief, love, and herself through the world. Rather than prescribing what viewers should feel, this survivor invites folks to sit with the work and discover their own emotional response. She leaves space for the existing quiet melancholy that can accompany motherhood after abuse—a reality that often remains unseen beneath expectations of joy and resilience. Which doubly envelops the feeling of grief when the baby doesn’t make it.
Absolutely zero parts of this reality makes one less of a mother, and it certainly doesn’t stop one from feeling the depth of that level of love. The infamous, indescribable, inexplicable love of a mother. Almost like a superpower. This portrait challenges the romanticized image of motherhood by acknowledging that for many survivors, pregnancy and parenthood are intertwined with violence, loss, and the lifelong process of letting go. In allowing herself to be fully seen, this survivor reminds us that survival is not the absence of sorrow, but the courage to continue living, loving, and reclaiming oneself in its presence.
Click here to view the digital gallery, and click here to read more about this campaign.
Created for The Art of Care gallery by Planned Parenthood. This portrait honors the strength of a survivor who endured severe intimate partner violence while pregnant. The person who should have protected her instead inflicted physical abuse during one of the most vulnerable periods that a human could ever possibly face, forever changing her experience of motherhood, womanhood, and survival. The violence did not end with just cuts and bruises—it reshaped how she carried grief, love, and herself through the world. Rather than prescribing what viewers should feel, this survivor invites folks to sit with the work and discover their own emotional response. She leaves space for the existing quiet melancholy that can accompany motherhood after abuse—a reality that often remains unseen beneath expectations of joy and resilience. Which doubly envelops the feeling of grief when the baby doesn’t make it.
Absolutely zero parts of this reality makes one less of a mother, and it certainly doesn’t stop one from feeling the depth of that level of love. The infamous, indescribable, inexplicable love of a mother. Almost like a superpower. This portrait challenges the romanticized image of motherhood by acknowledging that for many survivors, pregnancy and parenthood are intertwined with violence, loss, and the lifelong process of letting go. In allowing herself to be fully seen, this survivor reminds us that survival is not the absence of sorrow, but the courage to continue living, loving, and reclaiming oneself in its presence.
Click here to view the digital gallery, and click here to read more about this campaign.
