Conceptual Artist, Humanitarian, and Intimate Partner Violence Advocate.
My work explores violence, coercive control, abuse, power, accountability, and survival. Through art, public interventions, writing, and advocacy, I transform lived experience into opportunities for awareness, education, and prevention. I am particularly interested in the ways coercive control extends beyond intimate relationships and can be found throughout society—in our home, workplace, institutions, political systems, and cultural narratives. My work examines how manipulation, intimidation, exploitation, and the pursuit of power operate at both personal and systemic levels.
Accountability and a comprehensive understanding are key to moving towards change. The telling of survivor stories is essential to ending stigma, increasing public awareness, and preventing future harm. What remains hidden cannot be examined. What cannot be examined cannot be changed. Accountability is prevention.
There is no freedom without truth, and simply speaking the truth is an act of resistance.
If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, support is available through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by texting LOVEIS to 22522.
A MIRror of DREAD
Coercive control as the systematic erosion of autonomy: Offering a comprehensive, evidence-based understanding of "Domestic" Violence.
A MIRror of DREAD was created to bring light to what is often hidden. Domestic violence, coercive control, and abuse frequently thrive in silence, stigma, and misunderstanding. Through art, personal narrative, and public truth-telling, this project seeks to make visible the patterns of power, control, intimidation, and violence that are often dismissed, minimized, or overlooked.
Many of the artworks and writings are derived from actual emails, text messages, threats, and experiences that were intended to silence, intimidate, control, or diminish me. By transforming these materials into art and public dialogue, I reclaim my autonomy and authorship. What was intended to instill fear becomes evidence, examination, and awareness.
A MIRror of DREAD challenges the stigma surrounding domestic violence by encouraging open conversation and critical examination of coercive control and its impact on individuals, communities, and society. What was intended to silence becomes a voice—an act of witness, resistance, liberation, and prevention.
Victims are often told to "move on." I did not move on from violence and coercive control; I moved through it. By confronting these experiences rather than burying them, I transformed what was intended to diminish my autonomy into art, education, awareness, and prevention.
Before I could do that, I had to understand what I had experienced. Learning about domestic violence, coercive control, trauma, and narcissistic abuse helped me make sense of experiences that had once felt confusing, isolating, and impossible to articulate—or escape. This knowledge became the foundation for reclaiming my autonomy.
It also became a means of protecting my safety. Understanding the patterns, tactics, and risk factors associated with abuse allows me to recognize warning signs, establish boundaries, and make informed decisions about my well-being. The knowledge I gained is not only part of my recovery; it is part of how I keep myself safe.
It took me four attempts to make my final escape. It took a therapist specializing in narcissistic abuse, coercive control, and cult recovery. It took educating myself. It took obtaining a five-year Order of Protection. And it took being dragged through a judicial system riddled with loopholes and statutes that too often leave abusers free while victims' lives are altered forever.
Knowledge is power.
_________
•How Narcissistic Leaders Present a Danger for Democracy
•Pathological power: the danger of governments led by narcissists and psychopaths
•Dissecting narcissism within politics’ highest ranks
•Narcissism: Why It's So Rampant in Politics
•Arrogant Narcissism: The Essence Of U.S. Foreign Policy
•How the ancient Greeks kept ruthless narcissists from capturing their democracy – and what modern politics could learn from them
8 Dangerous Myths About Narcissistic Abuse
•Knowledge is Power
•I'M FREE TO BE
•The Freedom Grill