3 minute read
EMBODIED' BY TIFFANY NICKEL
By Ray Manzari
BY TIFFANY NICKEL
by Ray Manzari
Art by Tiffany Nickel
Woman 14
The first thing one notices about artist Tiffany Nickel is that she breathes creativity. From her BA in creative writing to her time as a pastry chef, Nickel is all about color, self-expression, and inspiration. Nickel has been painting since 2015 and working on her current collection using real, nude, female models since 2018. The Embodied collection centers around survivors of sexual or domestic abuse and seeks to bring life to their stories.
She told OUT FRONT that she has more than 280 women sketched in her personal notebook. These models either pose for her live or send in pictures. When the project started, most of her models were Denveror Colorado-based. However, as her art began to gain popularity on social media, she has since painted women worldwide. All of her paintings begin as sketches. From there, they get practice paintings, which she has just recently begun to sell. The pieces and stories that she feels most connected to get painted on large canvases. In contrast to the dark stories of abuse that come with each painted model, the art featured in the Embodied collection is strikingly colorful. “Color makes people feel emotions, and if there’s one thing I want to convey through these pieces, it’s emotion. Unfortunately, sometimes people can be afraid to feel, which is why, I think, sometimes my paintings don’t sell.” The bright and playful pallets used in the paintings make each piece impossible to ignore. Perhaps intentionally, since all too often, victims of sexual or domestic abuse are overlooked or underrepresented. Just in Denver, there have been 302 sexual assaults reported so far this year, an average of 45 per month, or 1.5 per day. Denver has also had 997 domestic violence crimes reported in 2020 so far, an average of 150 per month, or five per day. To say that there is an epidemic of sexual assault and violence on women would be an understatement.
Each of the paintings in the Embodied collection is accompanied by a short blurb depicting the survivor’s account of abuse.
Defiance Girl
Survivors’ Stories
Defiance Girl: The woman depicted in this painting is a survivor of a brutal gang rape. She chose to participate in this project because she is now a mother of three daughters and works full-time in the finance world. Because she is Black, she felt like there were extra societal expectations placed upon her to be something she wasn’t. So, this painting is representative of her telling the younger generation to be who they are no matter what society tells them. Woman 54: This painting depicts a woman who lost her case in trial against her rapist. He did no time after drugging and raping her at a high school party. She said for years, people who knew her called her a liar and she got what she asked for, and for years, she believed she had failed. She started controlling the only things she felt like she could in her life. She developed an eating disorder; she used drugs to numb her pain and would sleep with anyone. She was hurting and wanted more out of her life. She went to a recovery center, joined a support group, and started seeing a therapist. She said once she began eating, sleeping, and taking basic care of herself, it was like a haze lifted, and she could see she needed to take control and wrap herself in self-love. She is painted in shades of pink because she works on romancing herself every day. For every art show the Embodied Collection holds, Nickel picks a non-profit, usually a women’s safe house or shelter, to give 40 percent of the proceeds back to the community that has helped this project grow. Follow Nickel on social media at @paintmenickel on all platforms.
It’s our differences that make us great.
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