Survivor Made Art Show by Grace Noel Art 11/29/25 11 am - 1 pm

RSVP on eventbrite ✨👉🏼 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/survivor-made-art-show-grace-noel-art-tickets-1972098091479?aff=oddtdtcreator

In Aug 2025 my personal life took an unexpected turn for the better, even though it was a long and arduous journey to get there. My children (ages 4 & 1 years old) and I had been living with domestic violence for 5 years. I tried everything to keep the family together and nothing seemed to work. Finally, one day - Aug 17, 2025, the cycle of violence exited our family home. I remember that day feeling long, not knowing what was happening but awkwardly thinking it was our liberation day. The days that followed took us on a journey towards solidifying that liberation but the journey equated to the most challenging life event I have ever experienced.

As the weeks went on, life as we knew it was on hold. I fell behind on work, my household and childcare duties amplified over night as I was the sole parent and sole income for our home. An amazing crew of friends helped me with an emergency removal of my ex’s belongings from my house while receiving threats from him - he lived with us but I am the sole owner of our family home. To keep my head clear, I was in therapy twice a week and spent all my time navigating the legal system to eventually gain a permanent protection order. From 09/05 - 10/28 I was going to the Denver County Courthouse once a week plus meetings with lawyers and advocates. I navigated all of this as a low income, sole custody, single mom and small business owner who had endured years of financial abuse by my ex. My community, parents, safehouse Denver, and Project Safeguard all swooped in to help. From Aug 17 to the end of Oct 2025, I felt like I was just barely able to keep myself from drowning after being hit by a massive ocean wave of change. I could barely come up for air for months.

Through this journey, I have learned so much about myself and how women still exist in servitude due to societal values regardless of the laws. My children were learning how to abuse me because that's what they saw their father doing. I enabled a harmful situation for years to find a way through the violence at home and keep the family together as that was all I knew. My values have been overhauled through this experience and I have done extensive research about domestic violence and intimate partner abuse due to this experience.

Since my son was born (Dec 2020), I strived to provide a loving, consistent, and peaceful home for him to grow up in. A major shift in me began in Winter of 2025, when I realized that I deserved better and that my children deserved to see their mother happy. They deserved to have a mother who parented from her true self and love. This realization grew in me and I could not quiet it. In June of 2025, I began personal therapy once a week after another failed round of couples therapy and realizing my ex’s substance abuse was really affecting me. Through therapy I struggled with a clash of values as preserving myself went against what my family had taught me, societal norms, and keeping the family together. I knew that this realization would result in ending everything the kids and I knew was normal and say goodbye to a two parent household. So, I left it up to fate, that if this was the path forward - our opportunity would present itself.

That fateful day in August, my liberation day, began a whole new life for my children and I. As we recover, our family home is full of happiness, love, kindness, and respect. We are actually doing better than we were as a two parent household, and my son is learning to help share in household chores. We are still on the journey to complete recovery and custody arrangements recently began in Oct 2025. In honor of the holidays and those of you who want to help - I have launched my Survivor Made Art Show to help bring together community and awareness around domestic violence. I believe by connecting to our heART, we can create a future together. Join me for Small Business Saturday 11/29 11 am - 1 pm in my Art Studio: 734 Santa Fe Dr, Denver CO 80204 located in the Underground Studios of the Denver Art Society.