This was a piece, especially created for the 30th anniversay of the "Frauennotruf Wetterau e.V.". The title of the show was "Kunst zu Gewalt gegen Frauen" which translates to "Art about violence against women". I thought a lot on how I wanted to go about this. It was not supposed to be too pornographic or violent. I am usually not a fan of sugar coating, so I had to find a way to get my story and the horror and sadness of the entire subject across. I was thinking about images, party including text, that women often hear, such as "smile, it makes you pretty", "I am pretty sure you asked for it" and so forth, but I actually wanted the image to be silent. As silent as most people are about what happens to them - out of fear, out of shame, ot other reasons. So when a friend of mine told be about two girls she knew, who had their virginity sold for a monthly salary by their own mother, when they were young, it hit me like a rock. It made me sad, desperate and angry. I wanted to channel my feelings into a silent image, that includes details, that tell more of the story than you first might think, such as the flower she holds, the look in her eyes. While I painted this picture, I couldn't stop thinking about that one question: "What are we actually worth?"
