Artist's Statement

"My name is Elizabeth Autumn Daniels. I like to be called Autumn. And here is a short bit about my life and the abuse that occurred: When I was five years old my parents divorced and I was torn back and forth between them in the years afterward. When I was six, neither of them could take care of me so they sent me to live with my uncle by marriage for a year. He sexually molested me the whole time. He never penetrated but it was horrifying nonetheless. He would make me strip naked to go to bed and watch me while I was doing so. He would fondle my privates and chest and make me touch him, and he would buy me things to keep me quiet.

"It didn't work though. I told my mother while she was visiting me. Years later I found out that my uncle had sexually molested his adopted daughter until she moved out years before I lived with him and he bought her silence too. After she found out that I was being abused she sent me to live with my two older brother at my step mom's grandmother's house. My great grandmother would make us behave by telling us that she would send me back to my uncles to live with him again if we weren't good kids.

"We lived there the remainder of the year and then moved in with my mother and her new boyfriend who was an alcoholic. If me and my brothers didn't clean the house good enough he would start throwing things away. He punched my mother in the nose and left a scar. we left him and came back to him maybe ten times over the years until we finally left him for good. My mom always thought she could change him to make him better. She was living in a fantasy world. After that we went to my dad and his second wife who would beat us with coat hangers and belts. She locked my brother in a tiny closet one day because he wouldn't mind and tried to get the other two of us to eat popcorn and watch a movie and turned up the TV to drown out his screaming.

"When I was 9 my mom drove us up to Pennsylvania to live with her boyfriend from before. We moved to this and that apartment or single room in a house where we had to share a bathroom with other people there. When I was eleven my mom's boyfriend started sexually molesting me. I remember exactly when it started. My mom told me to go and get him some socks out of the drawer that was in the living room to help him get ready for work faster and he came up behind me and started groping my chest and genitals. My mom had told him about my uncle when I was 6. After that he would come and molest me during the day when no one was in the room and at night before he went to the bathroom while I was trying to sleep. I would wake up feeling his hands on me. After I woke up he would say he loved me so much and why didn't I love him anymore when I would try to get away. That went off and on in between my mom sneaking away with us and coming back so many times. When I would try to tell her she would say that I was exaggerating and that I was blaming her boyfriend for what my uncle did. So I started telling her less and less often. We moved away from him for the final time when I was 15 and a half yrs old.

"When I was about 17 I started hallucinating and thinking people were out to get me. I would see ghosts and see flashbacks when I went to bed. My current room would transform into my old bedroom where my mom's ex would molest me. I would hear his footsteps walking down the hallway and stop at my door. He would come in my room and the abuse would happen all over again but it was only in my head. I thought that people were going to bomb my house. I was hearing 10 voices in my head nonstop. I was put in the mental ward of a local hospital for two weeks. Turns out I am paranoid schizophrenic like my aunt. So for the past three years I have dealt with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a mental disability. But finally the past couple of months I have found the right medication and I have a good doctor who prescribes it for me. I use self art therapy to recover. I have been drawing and painting since I was five years old and it always helped me escape my current surroundings. And now it is helping me heal. I am doing a lot better and am not hallucinating anymore or hearing voices. I just can't handle stress very well."

-- Autumn Daniels

NOTE: We've lost touch with Autumn, and we're worried about her. Please contact us, Autumn.