Life Drawing as Evidence

🐛 The Caterpillar (Gaslit Origins)

Title: Grandmother
Medium: Charcoal, 2-minute gesture drawing
Series: Art as Evidence – Early Work

This figure appeared suddenly — swift, fierce, undeniable — drawn in under two minutes. The artist describes it as “Grandmother,” but not the loving kind. Both she and her sister remember a texture of evil so palpable, it seemed to stretch across generations, rituals, and shadows. Whether a real person or an entity within the cult, this “grandmother” carried cruelty as lineage.

The caterpillar, as metaphor, often asks “Who are you?” But in this case, the question was weaponized. The artist has lived her life under the crushing weight of gaslighting — both within her personal history and cultural conditioning — only reaching full understanding in her sixties.

This drawing captures the split:

• The hidden life, shaped in trauma time — reclaimed through drawing, ritual, truth

• The outer life, lived as best as one can, using pain as fuel for expression, transformation, and fierce joy

“I realize I have had a double life — the life of being in trauma time, and transmuting it.”

You’re no longer in the cocoon. You’re documenting the transformation.

Types of Harm:

Spiritual - Catholic, Evangelical Christianity, S/group/cut

Scientific - Medical Experimentation

Community - Trafficking, Educational System

Racial Harm - all interconnected

Systemic - whistleblowing in ADR field, whistleblowing in a complex mental health system