Edith Studio

So what's it all about? Braeside Street in D.D.O./Montréal.

This is about reclaiming and reframing an event that happened in childhood to me. An event that was quite traumatic though at the time I don't know that I remember it being traumatic but I know now as an adult it was quite traumatic.

When I look at pictures of those houses, my heart starts to race and I realise that it probably was very traumatic. I was under the age of 5, so maybe 3, maybe 4, or five, not sure.

I sat on a bench beside a man who could have been just a teenage boy or it could have been a man in his 20s or 40s. I have no idea but it was an older bigger man.

This piece is about me deciding that I can now decide as the adult how I want to remember this. I can't change what happened and I can't change that I was once a victim but I'm no longer that victim. I am a powerful woman with agency and I have decided it's my decision whether I want to look back or not. I'm victorious.

Because this no longer exists. The bench is no longer there. The trees, who were the only witnesses to what happened that day, don't exist there any more either. But in this drawing/ painting, the trees and the bench will very much be there. Because I choose to include them.

I have declared that I have reconstructed this so I determine how this fits into my future. This, along with many other pieces in my Fragmented Nemory, Fractured Past series, is part of that series called Tyrants of Toronto/ Monsters of Montreal. It's all about the reframing and all about this little girl finally realising as an adult that she's got agency and she is powerful.

Still a long way to go on this drawing soon-to-be painting...

Footprints in the snow a.k.a. Places to hide.” 1st slide: 2026. 2nd slide 2025. Digital drawing printed on aluminum.

Childhood is supposed to be fun, carefree, and filled with laughter, playfulness, mischief. We expect kids to be boisterous, daring, innocent.

Screw the adults who shatter that time in our lives.

My work is not always pretty. It’s not always happy. Sometimes it’s hard to look at because it’s too painful to remember; difficult to conceive of such horrible acts; Awkward to face those (mostly) men in our lives/community who commit these acts against children and rob them of their Joy.

We don’t want to believe it. We don’t want to see it. We don’t want to know about it. Because then we’d be… responsible?

Often times my work focuses on a child hero who reclaims her memories and chooses how to weave those memories into a new empowering narrative where victims become victors. This is my hope for all child survivors… that one day we fight the demons in our memories and remember the happy childhood we once had. Joy will live again.

Prints available from 18 x 18“ to 60 x 60“. Limited Edition of 18.
20% of profits are donated to causes that support victims of child sexual abuse. Dm me for pricing or to order.