DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS A VERY SERIOUS ISSUE IN SOCIETY TODAY.

Coercive Control is a term used in Intimate Partner Relationships where abusive behaviours lead to Domestic Violence.  From my experience, I hope to put a visual face to this tragic issue of victims of abuse.  Representing a loving relationship, peaceful meadows, sky above and trees surround and embrace Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ standing before my chicken  house in the country.  Yet, when that relationship breaks down and becomes abusive, we are vulnerable; our ’emotional’ eggs have been placed in our loved one’s basket.  Clouds gather and darken as they fall through a formerly loving relationship onto Bernini’s sculpture ‘The Ecstasy of Santa Teresa’.  A winged Angel, his spear filled with Divine Love, is thrust into the heart of the nun lying beneath him.  Yet, to me, this sculpture also spoke of  betrayal.  The angel’s duplicitous smile, his sharpened spear reminded me of domestic violence and the heartbreak associated with it.  Domestic Violence places victims in a cage of emotional, financial and often physical abuse; fearfully exposed to another’s anger and control.  Shelter is needed.  But then, one day on a leafy branch a tiny green crysallis appears and from this a beautiful new butterfly is born.  Recovery is possible.   A new life begins.  

Original design (c) 2022 Sandra Small Proudfoot, AOCA ’89, Mono, Ontario, Canada

This image is available in poster form as well.  Please contact me at farmerswalkbandb@sympatico.ca   subject head: Coercive Control Poster