The Aftermath of Child Abuse

For my art exam paper I chose the topic “Aftermath” and did the aftermath of child abuse. Below are my artworks for my paper and some of the essay I wrote on it:

The aftermath of child abuse is extensive and also depends on the kind of abuse, such emotional, physical and sexual. Some things that appear in a child after abuse are fear (“Please Don’t Hurt Me!”), anger (“The Look of His Father”), shame (“Secrets of Shame”), sadness (“Unseen Tears”) and the feeling of being unloved  (“Scarred Childhood”). Often an abusive person is someone who was previously abused as a child and many abused children will grow up to later abuse their children, as I attempted to reveal in my picture entitled “The Look of His Father”. Other examples of the aftermath of child abuse are loss of childhood (“Scarred Childhood” “Abigail’s Loss”, etc.), feelings of emptiness, inefficiency and despair, suicide, unspeakable secrets (“Secrets of Shame”), and inner scars that they’ll carry for life (“Abigail”).

In my series of pictures, I have used different techniques to convey the aftermath of child abuse.  I have used the symbols of teddy bears, a doll and playground equipment (in “Scarred Childhood”, “Please Don’t Hurt Me!”, “Secrets of Shame”, “The Forgotten Playground” and “Abigail’s Loss”) to illustrate the loss of childhood and the feelings of emptiness and abandonment that abused children feel.  Also the clouds that appear in the background of some of my art work symbolise despair, anger and inner turmoil. Furthermore, many abused children keep all their feelings locked inside, like storm clouds withholding rain. I have also experimented with different mediums and artistic techniques as I explored the aftermath of child abuse, which is a living and terrible problem in society.

                                                     Abigail

                                                                       Black ink, charcoal and pastel

                                          Scarred Childhood
                                           Colour pencil

                                          Unseen Tears

                                                        Gray pencil

                                          The Look of His Father

                                                         Charcoal and ink

                                          The Forgotten Playground

                                                         Ink, charcoal and pastel             

                                          Please Don’t Hurt Me!

                                                        Gray pencil and ink

                                          Secrets of Shame

                                                         Acrylic, collage (magazine strips)

                                                         And colour pencil

                                           Final Work

                                          Abigail’s Loss

                                                        Charcoal, ink, colour pencil,

                                                        Gray pencil and pastel pencil

P.S Sorry about the quality of the photos of my artwork; they look better in "real" life.