Today, I listened to Joan Marie Kelly talk about her work in Singapore and India in the the sex slave industry. It was really interesting to hear about how she was working with these women, using them as her model and showing them that they are worth more than just sex. She paints and draws these women in such a beautiful way while still preserving their heritage. I liked especially how she was allowing these women to draw and paint in sketchbooks and on their own portraits. I also really enjoyed seeing how this project originally started with her painting people in a local hangout place in the Red Light District.
She didn't really explain how she began working in Singapore and I wish I could have stayed longer during the lecture so I could have asked that question. I didn't know that Singapore was so strict and after learning that prostitution was legal was even more surprising. I felt kinda of bad for the students she was talking about because it seems like they don't really have any freedoms and the way she described how the government controls their every thought is so foreign to me because here in the U.S., many schools and state governments encourage personal thoughts.
Joan Marie Kelly's artwork is really interesting and I like how she's breaking out of the norm by working in Brothels. I enjoyed this lecture and I'm glad she took time to come out to UNH and speak to us.
