The Body Remembers Print

This piece captures the biological and psychological aftermath of intimacy, particularly how the body tells a different story to the mind. Research from Bessel van Der Kolk, Stephen Porges and Emily Nagoski shows how the body reacts faster than the mind, storing unresolved experiences in the pelvic region and nervous system. This print acknowledges that post-intimacy discomfort is often not "overthinking" but the body doing its job, interpreting closeness through past templates and instincts. It explores how the nervous system holds onto experiences long before the mind has made sense of them.

The pose exposes the internal negotiation between wanting to be desirable and wanting to feel safe. It shows how internalised the male gaze is when we present ourselves. This painting portrays the difference between how we feel and how we have been taught to arrange ourselves for someone else's gaze. The intention is not the shame this performance but to illuminate the truth beneath it, in the survival responses we have created. It emphasises how painting becomes a non verbal form of expression, portraying what the body already knows.

For survivors of sexual trauma, intimacy can be contradictory: we can feel hyperaware and numb at the same time. The nervous system responds to what feels safe or what feels like a threat, it isn't able to distinguish between relationship labels, whether you tell yourself something is casual or exclusive. The figure is a mirror for emotional regulation and understanding involuntary responses after intimacy. This piece reflects how new healthy experiences of intimacy slowly rewrite the old predictions and teach the nervous system that safety is possible again.