I endured abuse by men who were in positions of care for me throughout my girlhood. As a result, I am affected by C-PTSD… Trauma's recovery is very fluid. I've gone years thinking I was healed and then found myself face to face with the past. In one fell swoop…

I'm in an amazing place now, learning to flip the script. I didn't start the fire. It could have been any other girl, and those men would have done the exact same thing. I am worthy of love, even if I don't know what love feels like. I am speaking my truth, though I barely recognize my own voice. I am safe. Nature is healing. I am learning that as I surround myself with safety, beauty and sustenance, I get closer to who I was meant to be, even though the world has not changed.

-Monika

“My portrait practice stems from a deep interest in people, consciousness and how personality and personal history, including struggle, loss, grief, challenge, trauma and triumph manifest themselves in the physical. How do we use the artist's eye to understand that which we cannot see?”                   

- Carol Wylie

Carol Wylie has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions across Canada and in the United States. Her project of holocaust and residential school survivor portraits entitled, ‘they didn’t know we were seeds’, has toured Western Canada. She has work in private and public collections, including SK-Arts, the Mann Art Gallery, and the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron.