You need to see this art student’s powerful depiction of the lasting impacts of sexual assault

After being given an assignment in class to draw a map, this one student interpreted the challenge by visualizing the lasting impact that touch and sexual assault can have on the human body in the form of a map of the body.

Given the current socio-political climate where the leader of the country is on record condoning grabbing women by their genitalia, now is an important time to focus one’s energy on battling sexual assault. Whether that’s understanding how survivors of sexual assault are feeling, debunking myths surrounding sexual assault, or ensuring that important work done under the Obama administration isn’t reversed.

For one student, this entailed creating some art work to showcase the lasting impact that sexual assault can have on one’s body.

19-year-old Emma Krenzer, who attends Nebraska Wesleyan University was in art class when they were tasked with an assignment to create a map.

"The prompt for this project was to create some sort of map," she wrote on Twitter. "I created a map of human touch on another humans body and it's lasting impact."

The result of Krenzer’s project is a powerful interpretation of how sexual assault can affect people.

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/823611198734299137

“I made this project largely for myself to actually visualize the lasting impact that touch can have on an individual,she told Buzzfeed News. "I thought about what was true for myself, and also, what I perceived to be commonly true for people in general, when I mapped out these touches."

As Krenzer points out, the different colors all represent touches from various people who one might come across, including the impact that sexual assault can have.

Since sharing her artwork on Twitter, Krenzer’s tweet has been shared over 120,000 times, and has been liked over 300,000 times. Indeed, the artwork also incited many moving responses from people on social media.

this is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen

— bdarbs (@bridGET_BUCK3TS) January 23, 2017

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/823632001139965958

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https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/823777648321011712

Krenzer told Buzzfeed that she first took a picture of her friend before printing it out and finger painting over it.

“Some people told me they burst into tears after viewing the piece and others thanked me repeatedly for creating it," she said. "I really don’t have the words to describe how it makes me feel," she said.

Krenzer has since asked people on Twitter whether they’d be interested in buying prints and t-shirts of her artwork, and has said that she hopes to create a wider series of larger pieces of work.

“I just really like working large scale with the human body and expressing important messages about it,” she said.