I (Rebecca) happen to be quarantining with one of my favorite visual artists : Zyania Alonso.
For this second creativity challenge, we decided to put our ideas together & partner on painted handbag.
April 2020 is SAAM (Sexual assault awareness month), and the theme this year #iask .
"Too often, our society sends the message that sexual assault, harassment, and abuse are caused by an individual person’s choices and failings. We should never blame victims for what happened to them — sexual assault and abuse are actions that one person chooses to inflict on another. We need to hold individuals who commit abuse accountable," -- www.nsvrc.org/saam We wanted to build on that theme with an abstract illustration, and the bold reminder that our simply having a female body, is not our giving consent, our clothing choices are NOT our consenting, our being at the wrong place at the wrong time is NOT us giving consent
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Zyania experimented with painting directly onto the leather with dyes -- instead of paint -- and even created the most beautiful and intricate matching zipper pull, while I (Rebecca) experimented with a new cut of bag circular zipper bag.
We hope this bag is not only inspiring, but is also a reminder of the boldness, strength, and resilience that each of us carries in our female form..
