After interviewing six different women about their experiences, rebuilding their lives after living with domestic violence, Rebecca LeFevre has taken each of their stories and expressed them on canvas. The community can view the art exhibit during the month of October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness month.
LeFevre’s project contains six oil paintings; one created for each woman’s story. They can be viewed at the Richmond Memorial Library Gallery Room.
The general theme of each painting is included next to each work of art. A detailed story of each interview that motivated the paintings is available online at www.womensvoices.art or by scanning the QR code next to each painting.
The project was made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program administered by GO ART!,
“I came up with the idea for this project, I clearly remember standing in my studio, which is in the basement of my house, and I had been on the phone with a friend of mine, we had a conversation that one of these paintings is inspired by and I felt so joyful, hearing her story because she had been through a lot. The details of her story were very hard, very difficult. But her perseverance, her dedication to figuring out what the truth was and taking the steps that she needed to in her life to grow and overcome the obstacles that she had been faced with was so inspiring,” says LeFevre.
“I felt like, oh my gosh, I know you’re talking to me about something in confidence, but I wish I could just tell everybody about this. Like, it’s so inspiring. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops, but I can’t. But maybe I can, you know. And there’s where I could think of colors and textures kind of associated with her story. I’ve had this experience before where I’ve heard something from someone and wished I could share it. And I think art is a way I could do that, and I love abstract painting. It’s so much fun, and it’s the most enjoyable for me when there’s meaning behind it. I mean, color is really cool. I like playing with it, but when there’s something that can touch people’s lives, it makes it all worthwhile.”
LeFevre applied for a grant in October of last year and then started with the first interviews in the beginning of December. She started actively painting in January.
“My goal was to do one painting a month. If I could just get one done every month in six months, I’d have six interviews and six paintings. They are oil paint, so that takes a at least six weeks to be fully cured before I can hang it. So, I knew I needed to be done in the middle of summer if we were having a show in October.”
Some weeks she said she put in five-eight hours in the studio. Other weeks just a few hours.
“I love big paintings, but I think that the reason behind doing most of the paintings this large, I wanted it to be life size. You know, we have these experiences; they’re in the past. There’s nothing tangible to associate them with. So, doing something that’s like more person sized, I think, is valuable. You know, and we can relate to that in a different way.”
One painting is very small and very different from the others. LeFevre says the person she interviewed described feeling small.
“I thought the best way to describe feeling small is to make a nice small little piece amongst bigger pieces. You know, size is all relative, so I think that, in the context of the larger work, makes sense. If I was only showing one painting, that might not make sense in and of itself, but in the context of the room, I think the smaller size says a lot.”
The Art Exhibit is presented in collaboration with the YWCA of Genesee County.
“Domestic violence is something that spans the spectrum. It impacts men and women from all social classes, races, anybody is possibly able to be impacted by this, and Genesee County is not an exception,” says Jackie Wheeler, Director of Community Services at the YWCA of Genesee County.
The YWCA has served over 3,500 people with their food pantry the past few years and have answered over 1,500 hotline calls.
“We have interacted and performed over 1,800 episodes of advocacy. We have had over 2,000 nights of people staying in our safe house. We have had over 300 counseling sessions, and we have done over 1,200 episodes of prevention education in the community. This is something that is near and dear to many people in this room, and we are just so grateful for Becky’s ideas, inspiration, innovation to bringing this unique art exhibit to the voices of survivors of domestic violence.”
There was a lot of positives from hearing people’s stories, LeFevre said.
“Every interview I left, I felt great afterward. It was a very rewarding experience to have women be just transparent and honest with me. I am completely inspired by every single person I talk to, and that’s why I also want to make these paintings to like a monument for their experience and platform them because I am very impressed by each and every one of them.”