Steve

Steve came to me asking for help conveying an image that he had in his head, it was a visual representation of how he felt.

Scared, sexually abused, and silenced as a young boy, Steve has grown into a very capable and accomplished man. He’s a professional athlete, Iron-man competitor, and barefoot runner. You look at him and think “This guy can defend himself.” But, and this is the point, at one point he was just a young boy, and couldn’t, and nobody saved him. Nobody could, because nobody knew.

He kept that with him, scared, quiet. I can’t begin to imagine what he went through, or what he’s going through today. This image marks the start of his fundraising for Little Warriors, it’s also the first step in him telling his family and friends that he was is, a victim of abuse.

The words painted on his body reflect his voice, the one he didn’t have, but he hopes his fundraising, his story, this image, will help to get people thinking and talking about abuse, looking a little closer, making sure that a child, boy, or girl, is not subject to the same life-altering fate he was.

Posted on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at 2:57 pm. Filed under: Personal, Portraits Tags: Abused, Athlete, Child, Iron-Man, Ottawa, portrait, Survivor RSS 2.0 feed.