by Shakti Kroopkin
60x72" diptych Sumi ink and oil on canvas
The crescendo is the peak of rage or creativity, the line and the curve, it is sound from
image.
I’ve yet to be the woman on stage announcing that I have survived sexual assault and rape.
Instead, I am the woman cheering and then silently tearing up in the crowd. In our current
political situation, we must tell our stories. Watching a racist, homophobic, misogynistic…man
become president, I am called to Rise! To be a force in shifting the mindset that led rape culture
to infiltrate the White House. The right wing takeover has shaken my stability as a citizen, a
woman, as an artist, a mother, and caretaker of the earth. I have no want of color, no desire to
share whimsy. I am filled with anger and a sense of despair. This emotion inspired artistic
action; I have a Voice.
Crescendo expresses discontent and hope, beauty and pain interwoven.
Crescendo began with the darkness and through the process opens into infinite space for a
meditative, movement based healing. Revealing a path of honoring truth as a woman artist and
forgiving our society through the act of witness and expression.