Miscellaneous
As a Polymath, I am a little like a butterfly. I am intensely curious and seek knowledge and learning in many different subjects. We used to be called Jacks/Jills of all trades.
These are just odd random things that caught my eye as a story.
Street Life
Homelessness, Houselessness, Street Life.
I spent a month living out of my SUV-purposefully. I needed a break from life and it seemed that a complete reset was due for me. Along the way I met people who had fulltime jobs but could not afford apartments or homes to rent.
People who deliberately chose to leave the system we have in place and live outside of the constraints of modern society
People who chose vans, converted buses, and RV’s to live a tiny mobile lifestyle
I have always paid attention to the people who do not “fit”.
I see them as the humans they are and that they have a story.
Love For Sale
Love for Sale, (created in 2020) is about surviving assault. The images portray the emotional and psychological detangling that is forced to take place between the real and the digital when you find out you have been in conversation with a Romance Predator. This series is autobiographical in nature.
We live our lives based on words. Words... have the power to make us believe, and the power to persuade us to give up everything. Promises given to you that take your time, your energy, your love, images that you would never share with just anyone and then your money. In the end, with Romance Predators, all you are left with are broken promises, words of goodbye, and a depleted bank account. You question yourself and wonder why what you had to offer was not worth the love they promised you. When it ends you take the rejection personally; it is sealed in shame and embarrassment. Many of us never recover.
Humans are emotional creatures and when you take carefully orchestrated words and bind them with emotion, add loneliness, and the very normal and real desire for intimate human connection and you have the heart of why Romance Predators are the number one Fraud Crime in the world today. Add in the lack of criminal culpability and the inability of law enforcement anywhere in the world to make real progress in bringing this crime from Pandemic to manageable levels and you begin to see some of the layers in the fraud crime known as Romance Scams.
Law Enforcement estimates are based on only 1/3 of the afflicted worldwide population reporting. Adding COVID to the virtual world in 2020/1, and the prediction is for a 30-45% percent increase from 2019. Gentle figures estimate that this kind of fraud is pumping BILLIONS of dollars yearly into this almost perfect Cybercrime and into countries suffering from poverty, starvation, and heavily corrupted governments. Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Latvia.
There are three victims in this crime. The Assaulted Victim, the Stolen Image victim, and the human who can potentially become a Victim from being the perpetrator of this type of assault. Using emotions and words to influence their victim requires them to also be emotionally and mentally involved and who knows what kind of psychological and emotional damage this victim will face when he/she tries to walk away.
This series asks the viewer to see the victims through a new lens of understanding and to change their perspective and approach to victims they may come across in their own lives.
