{"id":21222,"date":"2022-03-19T08:19:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T12:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=21222"},"modified":"2022-03-19T08:54:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T12:54:23","slug":"ariel-bordeaux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2022\/03\/19\/ariel-bordeaux\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u2018Clutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir\u201d<\/a> (Fieldmouse Press) is a beautiful 80-page nonfiction graphic novel of anxieties and terrors. It spans from her childhood to becoming a mom, and throughout it feels like her eyes are wide with worry\u2014from self-critical, self-punishing everyday thoughts as well as awful things that happened to her when she was a girl. It\u2019s the sort of book that leaves you wishing there was something you could to do help.<\/p>\n

Art from \u201cClutter\u201d is on view at The Collaborative<\/a>, 498 Main St., Warren, Rhode Island, from March 3 to 27, 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cMemory clutters our minds and often makes it difficult to experience the present moment. The medium of comics allows me to put some of those memories away in neat little boxes, clearing the brain chaos \u2014 at least a little bit,\u201d the Cranston, Rhode Island, artist writes for the exhibition. \u201c\u2026Working in gouache, I often use color to express emotion where words fail me, and words to explain what I can\u2019t quite depict visually. Writing and drawing from life experience has always been a healing process for me, and my hope is that this book might open a space for dialogue about sexual violence and perhaps offer some small comfort to folks who have experienced trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir\u201d at The Collaborative, 498 Main St., Warren, Rhode Island, (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cClutter\u201d begins with Bordeaux recalling an unsettling experience from when she was a young girl\u2014a photographer asks to take her portrait and \u201cpushed my pants up over my knees to expose them a bit more.\u201d Then a stranger puts his hand on her knee while she and her brother are in a theater watching a movie. Then a villain breaks into her childhood bedroom at night to sexually assault her.<\/p>\n

There are transcendental moments of her childhood too\u2014blissing-out in a field of four-leaf clovers, the best picnic ever, somersaulting in her home as her mother plays Beethoven\u2019s \u201cMoonlight Sonata.\u201d But then there\u2019s divorce and stepdads and rollerskating mishaps. After one skating crash, she scolds herself: \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m such an idiot\u201d<\/p>\n

Bordeaux grows up to be a mom worrying about raising her young son and frustrated in her job, leaving her home and mind \u201ccluttered and chaotic.\u201d Waking down the street, Bordeaux thinks-shouts at herself: \u201cWake up! It\u2019s gorgeous out.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she seeks God and spirituality and angels and ways to be more present, more spiritually connected, to feel more gratitude, more peace, through meditation and therapy and comics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really weird, but it seems to work a lot like meditation,\u201d Bordeaux tells her therapist about making comics. \u201cI\u2019ve figured out my magic cocktail of coping \u2026 therapy, anti-depressants and comics!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir” (Fieldmouse Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"From<\/a>
From Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir\u201d at The Collaborative, 498 Main St., Warren, Rhode Island, (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"From<\/a>
From Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir” (Fieldmouse Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"From<\/a>
From Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir\u201d at The Collaborative, 498 Main St., Warren, Rhode Island, (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"From<\/a>
From Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir” (Fieldmouse Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ariel Bordeaux\u2019s \u201cClutter: A Scatterbrained Sexual Assault Memoir\u201d (Fieldmouse Press) is a beautiful 80-page nonfiction graphic novel of anxieties and terrors. It spans from her childhood to becoming a mom, and throughout it feels like her eyes are wide with worry\u2014from self-critical, self-punishing everyday thoughts as well as awful things that happened to her when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,107],"tags":[961,191,641],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21222"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21244,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions\/21244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}