18 Feb Artists for Trauma (AFT) Thanks FTL MODA
Artists for Trauma (AFT) thanks FTL MODA for replicating and supporting the message we have been saying and promoting for 7 years. Trauma survivors are fun, cool, hip, sexy and fashionable too! It truly takes a Village to support, promote and advocate for change and AFT applauds the gorgeous disabled – reAbled fashion show models.
Daily Mail Article: Disabled models take to catwalk in wheelchairs as New York Fashion Week promotes diversity… and British personal trainer and amputee makes runway debut
LAST YEAR in 2014. AFT, MACY’s Topanga Plaza and KOZIAK PRODUCTIONS presented this very same concept after 3 years of AFT advocating and pushing this fashion concept with the international, national and local So, Cal. fashion scene. You can view the AFT 6-minute HD fashion show film “Roll With It ~ Flow With It” below on the full 20-minute version Artists for Trauma YouTube page.
The more people who see, promote, support and participate in promoting the Artists for Trauma message of “Creativity…Connectivity…Community” and “that through the Power of Positivity, the Power of Possibilities, There is Great Opportunity for Quality Recovery following life altering trauma,” the more trauma survivors and their family members will be inspired to push thorough the often, all encompassing physical, mental and emotional pain and distress that accompanies life altering trauma. Life is NOT over! A NEW LIFE is just beginning. It is time to RE-INVENT yourself!
7 disfiguring and disabling years post helicopter crash and able to walk for 4 years, I see with both eyes but still struggle with TBI symptoms and other physical challenges; ‘DIVINE INTERVENTION’ my first words upon awakening from coma …INDOMITABLY JOYOUS AND GRATEFUL I continue to be! By looking at me today…Anyone would be hard-pressed to even imagine the level of trauma I’ve endured. It is not for others to know, but for me to know. This is my message to any and all trauma survivors. It is not about proving it to others! YOU ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON WHO NEEDS TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND HOW BLESSED YOU ARE…AND HOW MUCH YOU TRAUMA YOU HAVE OVERCOME!
Several days ago, while on a rare vacation in Mexican waters, I watched director, Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” about fashion magazine, ELLE’s editor Jean-Dominique Bauby’s sudden dramatically life changing trauma, a full body, paralyzing stroke and his subsequent healing through art project of writing his memoirs before his body lost it’s battle for life to pnemonia. Julian Schabel so comprehensively captured and cinematically conveyed the concepts of the many levels of re-entering consciousness and what it might feel like to the re-emerging human being following this serious altered state of being.
Watching the film, I know I am also a part of Jean-Dominiuqe’s trauma and story. In some serious comparable ways, this was my physical, mental and emotional life for some time! Marveling am I about the irony of juxtapostioning of ‘being the diving bell AND the butterfly.” Yesterday, I was snorkeling and swimming!!!…internally ‘tripping out’ on what is really ‘real,’ then, now or ever! I only know where I have been and where I am now! My heart, body and mind go out to all other fellow travelers of life altering trauma; DO NOT succumb to emotional suicide!
I am only one of the grateful amazing miraculous trauma surivors on this planet. There are many other inspiring, civilian and military trauma survivors from ALL OVER THE WORLD just like me! Re-Invent yourself, reach out…you are not alone!
Love,
Laura Sharpe
Artists for Trauma
…Where Recovery is an Art
Founder, CEO and Executive Director
www.artistsfortrauma.org