Josie Love Roebuck

Josie Love Roebuck (b. 1995) is an interdisciplinary artist from Chattanooga, TN. She received her B.F.A from the University of Georgia (2019) and is currently pursuing her M.F.A at the University of Cincinnati.

Josie Love Roebuck combines embroidery and painting to create intimate portraits of survivors of rape. Her paintings re-create the emotional narratives of the victims she depicts, and asks the viewer to consider the difficult reality of overcoming and healing from trauma.

Roebuck’s process itself is symbolic to the re-awakening of traumatic memory. Through the repetition of sewing - pushing and pulling needles, nail or awls through material - she considers the painful process a victim faces in reliving their own trauma. Symbolizing the stages of a victim’s struggle in the path to healing, Roebeck uses layers and shapes that fade the figure into camouflage, which acts as patterns of protection. The resulting portraits show the duality of pain and triumph, exclusion and acceptance.

Significant to Roebuck’s work is the way in which she re-examines the historic presentation of rape in painting. By shifting the lens from the male perspective - which historically has depicted rape as fantasy- to the lens of the female survivor, Roebuck creates a voice for the victims that is empowered and does not limit their sense of self to their experience.

Submitted by LatchKey Gallery