I often wonder how a young child envisions horror. How a young child envisions pain. As an adult, horror and pain are often translated into a programmed set of feelings and emotions. Unfortunately, as adults we have often experienced so much horror and pain in the world that we have become programmed on how to deal with such sensations. Children, however, do not have such a luxury. Every emotion from the excitement and thrill of tasting a favorite flavor of ice cream down to the pain of a sidewalk scrape is magnified into an intense sensation and reaction. Fortunately, my childhood is filled with only ice cream flavors and happy memories. Unfortunately others are not as fortunate.

Hiding behind the smells of incense and the cloak of religion, several monsters have perpetrated unthinkable and unimaginable crimes against children. Recent news stories have captured only small granules of a pervasive problem that has been allowed by the Catholic leadership to run rampant for decades, and perhaps, generations. To capture the horror and the pain of the devastated souls affected by these religious monsters in words is impossible. For anyone. This has become starkly evident in the attempt testimony of the victims whose minds and bodies have been so ravaged by the actions of their tormentors that words so inadequately express their long repressed feelings that voice raising and table pounding are the only solution.

One artist, however, may have opened the door to an avenue for the expression of pain and horror. Although not a victim of sexual abuse, the artist has translated the experience of growing up in an environment of physical and mental abuse at the hands of a heavy handed religious leaders and family members into an emotional and powerful work of art.

Ghostly black and white faces void of eyes and expression, lonely images of a young girl, a tattered Raggedy Ann, an assortment of old dolls turned inside out, dismembered, without eyes or hair or lips, dolls attempting to flee, stapled to the wall, all combined in a collage of black and white emotions. All of these intense images leap from the wall toward a single 1950 era pupil desk holding an individual Catholic missal. The artist’s expression makes the viewer feel as if he or she is inside the mind of a troubled and devastated child. The inside out, scarred, confused and scorched psyche of the child is exposed for the viewer to experience. Feelings of horror, pain and devastation are combined with feelings of beauty and humor which remind the viewer that inside this tangled mass lays the original innocence of a child. This reminder is brief, however, as a tortured soul is exposed. One can feel the pain of the child, and while not understanding how the tangled emotions were created, understanding the pain and anguished suffered.

To view the work is to view pain. To understand the power and strength one must have to turn such emotions inside out for the world to experience is to view beauty and hope.