Chanel Miller, a sexual assault survivor, has painted a mural about her healing process at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, The San Francisco Chronicle Datebook reports.
Last year, Miller identified herself as the Jane Doe in the infamous Brock Turner rape case. She has published a book about her life during and after the trial. Miller says that she was careful about the details she included in the book and the words she used. Art gives her more freedom.
“With drawing, I want to preserve that raw state, that experimental state, just make a feeling visible,” Miller wrote in a guest column for Marie Claire.
The mural she painted for the Asian Art Museum features the phrases “I was,” “I am” and “I will be.” Below each phrase is a line-drawn figure. The figure is in a fetal position beneath “I was,” in a lotus position beneath “I am” and in a standing position beneath “I will be.”
The three sections of the mural represent different phases of healing for Miller, although she notes that the healing process is not linear.
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“I see it as a series of temporary states,” Miller told Datebook. “The greatest trick our minds and feelings play on us is the illusion of being stuck. I want to make it clear we’re always in transition, even if we feel stagnant or don’t feel like we’re progressing. Things are always changing. It’s one of the only ideas I clung to in my worst state.”
The mural is first exhibition in the museum’s new Asian American Experience series. It will be on display through February 2022.
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