{"type": "project", "title": "CounterAgent Art", "logoImg": "bafkreiagy66j7vhu3qmob3znpknvu5vvm35ot24lmv62mqopmtpmsfwv2q", "website": "https://enddomesticviolence.art", "bannerImg": "bafkreifvzr6wqelgnnkgys7667xw7ii4q5wmroqv6jz54n2ousfgco5vxu", "createdAt": 1673474198547, "userGithub": "ArtAndMagic", "credentials": {"twitter": {"type": ["VerifiableCredential"], "proof": {"jws": "eyJhbGciOiJFZERTQSIsImNyaXQiOlsiYjY0Il0sImI2NCI6ZmFsc2V9..GVNM4ReDYJ1yk3Yv9NlK5nJNmg9NRLZdOneSoNGVjQ4D7iV7Bik9zSjaxylU5aH9fhZbTA0L0hbstB2pc5_EBA", "type": "Ed25519Signature2018", "created": "2023-01-11T21:55:21.769Z", "proofPurpose": "assertionMethod", "verificationMethod": "did:key:z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC#z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC"}, "issuer": "did:key:z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC", "@context": ["https://www.w3.org/2018/credentials/v1"], "issuanceDate": "2023-01-11T21:55:21.769Z", "expirationDate": "2023-04-11T21:55:21.769Z", "credentialSubject": {"id": "did:pkh:eip155:1:0xbe7A9D0ee2F1c7F6e44Ea922e52603e921566778", "hash": "v0.0.0:h0yxaweE43Wm1ox2bV49mZFMoqcOFwL2UxGMvHLSrWY=", "@context": [{"hash": "https://schema.org/Text", "provider": "https://schema.org/Text"}], "provider": "ClearTextTwitter#GLAMGuerilla"}}}, "description": "Our mission is to create a powerful healing process using art for domestic violence victims to process trauma and practice self-sovereignty, self-determination, and increase their sense of self-efficacy.\nParticipants will work through a series of abstract expressionist art exercises focused on increasing their sense of unique and individual identity, boundaries, and self-esteem.  \nReadings or discussions paired with the exercises and either in-person or online support, will give participants opportunities to practice and gain a deeper understanding of the rights they have as a person to make their own decisions, to try new things, to learn new and valuable skills, to increase the confidence they have in themselves, to process trauma, to heal, and to bring beauty into the world.  \nIt is our intention to create an open sourced web3 platform (dApp) to enable these workshops, the creation of NFT representations of the physical art they will be creating and to introduce the participants to the world of web3 in general. From de-fi to privacy protection, web3 is a place where workshop participants can find the tools they need to further practice self-sovereignty, self-determination and self-efficacy.\nThere are domestic violence resources to leave. There are escape plans.  There are advocates who will guide you through the court process.  These resources are stretched thin as paper and require call after call to access them.  You know who can\u2019t make call after call and get return calls?  Women who are living under the thumb of a domestic terrorist.   \nGetting away is a mother fucker.  It is dangerous.  It is TERRIFYING.   I know because I\u2019ve done it.  \nMy ex-husband tried to kill me by pushing me down a flight of stairs to a concrete floor in front of our 4 year old son.  \nMy daughter\u2019s father, a different man, dragged me out of bed by my hair, broke my finger, choked me, and squeezed my jaw so hard that I could barely open my mouth for 4 days.  While I was pregnant. When I finally got him out of my house and had a restraining order, I woke up to him standing over me as I slept after breaking into my house.  He was not arrested, despite the restraining order.\nTherapeutic art  has been one of the most powerful tools in our recovery.\nThere are countless recovery programs for abusers that are paid for by the government and usually court mandated.  There are endless free (and paid) recovery/rehab programs for addiction to alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, and eating disorders.  There are many 12-step meetings daily, all across the US for these issues.   \nFor people who have experienced abuse, recovery programs are few, not well structured, and underfunded.  You often find people with good intentions running a circle of stories centered around the abuser (codependent behavior) that often turns into the suffering Olympics, rather than focusing on the woman, her progress, and her well-being.  \nTo be clear - abusers are 100% responsible for the abuse they dole out.  There is no BLAME to the person who is abused.  \nThat being said, getting and staying in an abusive relationship is the result of not having a clear sense of self and strong boundaries.  The red flags that typically occur long before abusers take things physical would end the relationship for people with healthy boundaries.  The problem with never having had any agency over yourself is that you don\u2019t understand that LEAVING is the correct response to abusive behavior or that you even have that as an option.  While ending the relationship and respecting yourself are exactly the right answer, no person alive can do those things if they don\u2019t know, really know, deep down, that they CAN and that they have an intrinsic power over their own life.  If you were raised, like I was, with zero autonomy, you simply have no idea about personal boundaries, let alone how they apply to you, and that someone that will hurt you will never just change their mind and stop hurting you.  \nThere is a glaring lack of help that teaches people how to move forward and into an identity away and apart from the negative pattern of abuse that is likely all they have ever known, either to work their way up to getting out of an abusive situation or to rebuild themselves after they have left.\nThis is the space we aim to fill.\n\nFunding will go toward:\nCurriculum development\nIn-person workshops for women and their children\nSpace and material costs for workshops\nFilming demos for online use\nCreating a web3 platform for managing the workshops and onboarding participants to web3 by helping them understand web3 better, get a digital wallet if they don\u2019t have one, helping them create an online collection of their work in the metaverse (using Unlock Protocol on Polygon) that is a representation of their progress throughout the workshop. They will ultimately end up with a history of their process from start to finish, a story of their healing.\n\nFuture Goals:\nAdditional curriculum material from a diverse group of artists - ongoing\nGain widespread adoption of the curriculum for use by domestic violence services and individuals nationwide\nCreate a variation of the curriculum to be used with kids as a DETERRENT to domestic violence\nBroaden the potential use to people who speak a wide range of languages beyond English\nAdditional goals will be added as they become clearer\n\nFounder Personal History\nI have been painting since 1995.  I am a self-taught artist, gathering information and skills from a few college classes, a handful of online classes, YouTube tutorials, extensive reading and art evaluation, and just DOING it.  Painting has been many things to me, but what is most relevant to this is that it has been therapy and life.  I believe that art in all its forms is one of the most powerful means of personal transformation and restoration that exists.  While my current art practice is primarily about bringing beauty and joy into a world that can be very harsh, I have used art to process grief, to build my sense of self, and to exorcise traumatic events and their memories.\nI started in oils and worked sporadically in that, aerosol,  and other mediums as a means of self- expression until 2010.  At that time, I began to use art to process trauma, specifically domestic violence and rape.  The art therapy techniques my son was taught at age 4,  after witnessing his father try to kill me, were essential to his recovery, and led me down this path.  I began working in acrylics/mixed media and found a magic I had previously only known through making music.  I have also worked in watercolors, primarily in 2011 and again in 2019, when we were in Morocco, during which time I created an entire body of work - 30+ pieces - over a 5 month period, and solidified my desire to move toward being a full-time artist.  \nIn the curriculum we are outlining, the most important thing is developing a sense of self and the absolute value of each individual\u2019s perspective, expression, taste, and message, all of which happens in the inner world..  Neil Gaiman said \u201cThe one thing that you have that nobody else has is you.  Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision.\u201d  In my opinion, sparking the imagination of the inner world of an individual and repeatedly affirming the value of their voice is one of the most revolutionary things you can do, especially for someone who is being, or has been oppressed.  What happens inside of us belongs only to us. \nIn my opinion, abstract and emotional expressionist art are a deeply impactful form of visual communication that allows both creator and viewer to be moved in profound ways. My degree is in Mass Communication and Journalism with a minor in Psychology which deeply informs my understanding of visual communication.  I have studied brain and behavior correlation and taken a deep dive into PTSD, trauma, and recovery from it. \nMy current work is an exploration of vibrant color, texture, shape, movement, and telling stories by imbuing the canvas with energy and emotion.\nThe largest history and all of my past and current work can be viewed on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/iMaakeArt\nI am an expert in connecting seemingly divergent groups of people through art and music with a proven track record..  My career as a financial planner speaks to my ability to communicate complex ideas in an easily understandable way, to manage numerous relationships simultaneously, to network broadly, and to steward resources responsibly.  I am accustomed to floating between groups of vastly differing socio-economic and cultural situations with consideration for all and an eye to my own internalized biases.  I have taken several courses in Group Therapy and believe what I learned about group dynamics will be an asset.\nCurrently I am the owner of Sunshine Alchemists & Soap Co and Night Sun Candle Company in addition to being an artist.  We employ women coming out of domestic violence and give them flexibility and support to maintain financial solvency while continuing to be present for their children.   Receiving funding for this project will enable me to shift further into community healing and art and free up finances to hire more people at the shop.  \n I have lived a great deal of life, which has given me a tremendous amount of compassion.  My parents were Christian fundamentalist pastors with a church and school in Montana. Our family lived in the abandoned forest service building that also housed the church and school.  We showered at the Y across the street.  There was no real kitchen.  Our power was turned off regularly.  I know what it is to live out of a gym bag and rely on the kindness of others for food. I had my first job at 12, out of necessity, touching up frames in a factory. Thankfully, my path also led me to live in the Bay area, New York, here in New Mexico, and to spend time in New Orleans and Miami, with people from all over the world. \n I learned that how I was raised and what I thought was normal was far from it and that unlearning is an intentional process which is ongoing.  I have lived through\u2026 way too many violent incidents of varying natures, and as Lin-Manuel Miranda says, \u201cWrote my way out.\u201d \nCo-founder Personal History\nAs a woman who has had a long career in tech I\u2019m excited to be involved with a project that I feel will have a significant impact on bringing more DEI to the space. More importantly, it will have an impact on reducing the suffering caused by domestic violence and hopefully reduce the numbers by ending what can sometimes be generational patterns. \nI started my career more than 20 years ago when I graduated with a degree in computer science. Since then I have worked as a full-stack developer, architect, consultant, engineering lead at a successful startup and founder. I have the skills necessary to help bring organization and coordination to this project to ensure the funding received is used as efficiently as possible and to guide development on the web3 platform in a way that will see real results. \nI\u2019ve been involved in the web3 space since 2018, currently work for a web3 protocol, belong to many DAOs including several with a focus on DEI and serve on the board of advisors for multiple web3 companies.   \nDEI Round\nYou can find the statistics in our grant or on Google but it is widely known that historically disenfranchised groups of people, women, children, BIPOC and LGBTQA+ communities with fewer resources  are disproportionately affected by domestic violence. That is the community we will be serving with this program and that is the community we will be helping onboard to web3, thereby increasing diversity in the space. Additionally the current team, although small, is all female.\n\nEcosystem Round Tags\nUnlock\nAs part of the tools which will be built to enable the management of these workshops we will be building an open sourced art workshop platform (dApp). The platform itself will include the ability to create collections (Locks), mint NFTs (keys)  on top of Unlock Protocol.\nPolygon\nAs part of the tools which will be built to enable management of these workshops we will be building an open sourced MATIC native art workshop platform (dApp) that will allow users to deploy smart contracts on the Polygon network and mint NFTs from those contracts. \nWeb3Social\nAs part of the tools which will be built to enable the management of these workshops we will be building an open sourced completely web3 native art workshop platform. Additionally as part of encouraging self-sovereignty, self-determination, & self-efficacy we will be introducing participants to the world of web3, onboarding them with wallets, showing them how to use Mask to protect their privacy and giving them some skills to increase their financial literacy and self determination outside of the traditional finance world.\n\n", "logoImgData": {}, "bannerImgData": {}, "projectTwitter": "glamguerilla"}
CounterAgent Art
Our mission is to create a powerful healing process using art for domestic violence victims to process trauma and practice self-sovereignty, self-determination, and increase their sense of self-efficacy.
Participants will work through a series of abstract expressionist art exercises focused on increasing their sense of unique and individual identity, boundaries, and self-esteem.  
Readings or discussions paired with the exercises and either in-person or online support, will give participants opportunities to practice and gain a deeper understanding of the rights they have as a person to make their own decisions, to try new things, to learn new and valuable skills, to increase the confidence they have in themselves, to process trauma, to heal, and to bring beauty into the world.  
It is our intention to create an open sourced web3 platform (dApp) to enable these workshops, the creation of NFT representations of the physical art they will be creating and to introduce the participants to the world of web3 in general. From de-fi to privacy protection, web3 is a place where workshop participants can find the tools they need to further practice self-sovereignty, self-determination and self-efficacy.
There are domestic violence resources to leave. There are escape plans.  There are advocates who will guide you through the court process.  These resources are stretched thin as paper and require call after call to access them.  You know who can’t make call after call and get return calls?  Women who are living under the thumb of a domestic terrorist.   
Getting away is a mother fucker.  It is dangerous.  It is TERRIFYING.   I know because I’ve done it.  
My ex-husband tried to kill me by pushing me down a flight of stairs to a concrete floor in front of our 4 year old son.  
My daughter’s father, a different man, dragged me out of bed by my hair, broke my finger, choked me, and squeezed my jaw so hard that I could barely open my mouth for 4 days.  While I was pregnant. When I finally got him out of my house and had a restraining order, I woke up to him standing over me as I slept after breaking into my house.  He was not arrested, despite the restraining order.
Therapeutic art  has been one of the most powerful tools in our recovery.
There are countless recovery programs for abusers that are paid for by the government and usually court mandated.  There are endless free (and paid) recovery/rehab programs for addiction to alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, and eating disorders.  There are many 12-step meetings daily, all across the US for these issues.   
For people who have experienced abuse, recovery programs are few, not well structured, and underfunded.  You often find people with good intentions running a circle of stories centered around the abuser (codependent behavior) that often turns into the suffering Olympics, rather than focusing on the woman, her progress, and her well-being.  
To be clear - abusers are 100% responsible for the abuse they dole out.  There is no BLAME to the person who is abused.  
That being said, getting and staying in an abusive relationship is the result of not having a clear sense of self and strong boundaries.  The red flags that typically occur long before abusers take things physical would end the relationship for people with healthy boundaries.  The problem with never having had any agency over yourself is that you don’t understand that LEAVING is the correct response to abusive behavior or that you even have that as an option.  While ending the relationship and respecting yourself are exactly the right answer, no person alive can do those things if they don’t know, really know, deep down, that they CAN and that they have an intrinsic power over their own life.  If you were raised, like I was, with zero autonomy, you simply have no idea about personal boundaries, let alone how they apply to you, and that someone that will hurt you will never just change their mind and stop hurting you.  
There is a glaring lack of help that teaches people how to move forward and into an identity away and apart from the negative pattern of abuse that is likely all they have ever known, either to work their way up to getting out of an abusive situation or to rebuild themselves after they have left.
This is the space we aim to fill.

Funding will go toward:
Curriculum development
In-person workshops for women and their children
Space and material costs for workshops
Filming demos for online use
Creating a web3 platform for managing the workshops and onboarding participants to web3 by helping them understand web3 better, get a digital wallet if they don’t have one, helping them create an online collection of their work in the metaverse (using Unlock Protocol on Polygon) that is a representation of their progress throughout the workshop. They will ultimately end up with a history of their process from start to finish, a story of their healing.

Future Goals:
Additional curriculum material from a diverse group of artists - ongoing
Gain widespread adoption of the curriculum for use by domestic violence services and individuals nationwide
Create a variation of the curriculum to be used with kids as a DETERRENT to domestic violence
Broaden the potential use to people who speak a wide range of languages beyond English
Additional goals will be added as they become clearer

Founder Personal History
I have been painting since 1995.  I am a self-taught artist, gathering information and skills from a few college classes, a handful of online classes, YouTube tutorials, extensive reading and art evaluation, and just DOING it.  Painting has been many things to me, but what is most relevant to this is that it has been therapy and life.  I believe that art in all its forms is one of the most powerful means of personal transformation and restoration that exists.  While my current art practice is primarily about bringing beauty and joy into a world that can be very harsh, I have used art to process grief, to build my sense of self, and to exorcise traumatic events and their memories.
I started in oils and worked sporadically in that, aerosol,  and other mediums as a means of self- expression until 2010.  At that time, I began to use art to process trauma, specifically domestic violence and rape.  The art therapy techniques my son was taught at age 4,  after witnessing his father try to kill me, were essential to his recovery, and led me down this path.  I began working in acrylics/mixed media and found a magic I had previously only known through making music.  I have also worked in watercolors, primarily in 2011 and again in 2019, when we were in Morocco, during which time I created an entire body of work - 30+ pieces - over a 5 month period, and solidified my desire to move toward being a full-time artist.  
In the curriculum we are outlining, the most important thing is developing a sense of self and the absolute value of each individual’s perspective, expression, taste, and message, all of which happens in the inner world..  Neil Gaiman said “The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you.  Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision.”  In my opinion, sparking the imagination of the inner world of an individual and repeatedly affirming the value of their voice is one of the most revolutionary things you can do, especially for someone who is being, or has been oppressed.  What happens inside of us belongs only to us. 
In my opinion, abstract and emotional expressionist art are a deeply impactful form of visual communication that allows both creator and viewer to be moved in profound ways. My degree is in Mass Communication and Journalism with a minor in Psychology which deeply informs my understanding of visual communication.  I have studied brain and behavior correlation and taken a deep dive into PTSD, trauma, and recovery from it. 
My current work is an exploration of vibrant color, texture, shape, movement, and telling stories by imbuing the canvas with energy and emotion.
The largest history and all of my past and current work can be viewed on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/iMaakeArt
I am an expert in connecting seemingly divergent groups of people through art and music with a proven track record..  My career as a financial planner speaks to my ability to communicate complex ideas in an easily understandable way, to manage numerous relationships simultaneously, to network broadly, and to steward resources responsibly.  I am accustomed to floating between groups of vastly differing socio-economic and cultural situations with consideration for all and an eye to my own internalized biases.  I have taken several courses in Group Therapy and believe what I learned about group dynamics will be an asset.
Currently I am the owner of Sunshine Alchemists & Soap Co and Night Sun Candle Company in addition to being an artist.  We employ women coming out of domestic violence and give them flexibility and support to maintain financial solvency while continuing to be present for their children.   Receiving funding for this project will enable me to shift further into community healing and art and free up finances to hire more people at the shop.  
 I have lived a great deal of life, which has given me a tremendous amount of compassion.  My parents were Christian fundamentalist pastors with a church and school in Montana. Our family lived in the abandoned forest service building that also housed the church and school.  We showered at the Y across the street.  There was no real kitchen.  Our power was turned off regularly.  I know what it is to live out of a gym bag and rely on the kindness of others for food. I had my first job at 12, out of necessity, touching up frames in a factory. Thankfully, my path also led me to live in the Bay area, New York, here in New Mexico, and to spend time in New Orleans and Miami, with people from all over the world. 
 I learned that how I was raised and what I thought was normal was far from it and that unlearning is an intentional process which is ongoing.  I have lived through… way too many violent incidents of varying natures, and as Lin-Manuel Miranda says, “Wrote my way out.” 
Co-founder Personal History
As a woman who has had a long career in tech I’m excited to be involved with a project that I feel will have a significant impact on bringing more DEI to the space. More importantly, it will have an impact on reducing the suffering caused by domestic violence and hopefully reduce the numbers by ending what can sometimes be generational patterns. 
I started my career more than 20 years ago when I graduated with a degree in computer science. Since then I have worked as a full-stack developer, architect, consultant, engineering lead at a successful startup and founder. I have the skills necessary to help bring organization and coordination to this project to ensure the funding received is used as efficiently as possible and to guide development on the web3 platform in a way that will see real results. 
I’ve been involved in the web3 space since 2018, currently work for a web3 protocol, belong to many DAOs including several with a focus on DEI and serve on the board of advisors for multiple web3 companies.   
DEI Round
You can find the statistics in our grant or on Google but it is widely known that historically disenfranchised groups of people, women, children, BIPOC and LGBTQA+ communities with fewer resources  are disproportionately affected by domestic violence. That is the community we will be serving with this program and that is the community we will be helping onboard to web3, thereby increasing diversity in the space. Additionally the current team, although small, is all female.

Ecosystem Round Tags
Unlock
As part of the tools which will be built to enable the management of these workshops we will be building an open sourced art workshop platform (dApp). The platform itself will include the ability to create collections (Locks), mint NFTs (keys)  on top of Unlock Protocol.
Polygon
As part of the tools which will be built to enable management of these workshops we will be building an open sourced MATIC native art workshop platform (dApp) that will allow users to deploy smart contracts on the Polygon network and mint NFTs from those contracts. 
Web3Social
As part of the tools which will be built to enable the management of these workshops we will be building an open sourced completely web3 native art workshop platform. Additionally as part of encouraging self-sovereignty, self-determination, & self-efficacy we will be introducing participants to the world of web3, onboarding them with wallets, showing them how to use Mask to protect their privacy and giving them some skills to increase their financial literacy and self determination outside of the traditional finance world.


CounterAgent Art