I am not a journalist. I don’t aspire to be a journalist. I am an artist and find unbiased news and free press indispensable and believe it to be at the heart of democracy. But journalism is under threat. Journalists are being targeted world wide, even in Europe, the United Kingdom and my home country, The Netherlands.

Currently 513 journalists and 21 media workers are imprisoned worldwide, 241 journalists and 7 media workers in 2022 alone. According to the Committee to protect Journalists, this year 46 journalists and 4 media workers perished in relation to their work, of which 14 were women.

The first time I took notice of a journalist getting killed was hearing the news of Marie Colvin’s death, whilst she was one of the last few journalists there, reporting on the atrocities in Syria from Baba Amr, February 2012. She was an incredibly dedicated and brave journalist, but it doesn’t need to be a foreign affairs correspondent who dies on the job. In some countries just to be a female working for a small local newspaper or radio station can be dangerous enough to get killed. Or even to work as a female full stop. Some deaths are well documented and all over the news, but for a lot of the women they are just a small news item and unnoticed by many.

The aim of this project is to highlight the fragility and the cost of human lives and to commemorate them. It also serves as a protest against impunity and its collaborators by emphasising (female) journalism’s resilience and strength as a collective. And ultimately to educate the general public about these women in journalism by sharing their stories through visual art with the hope more people will value the access to unbiased news and free press in these turbulent times.

In order to do this, I am researching each of the women perished. To then collate all the information and make these women visible as individuals as well as one collective group, portraying them visually with portrait paintings and collectively, alongside the existing online information.

I have currently listed 238 women.
From 04/11/1965 up to 30.10.2022

 For completion of these portraits to coincide with International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists on the 2nd of November 2023/2024.

News about exhibition locations will follow in due course.

Any proceeds from Ongoing until the violence stops will go to the organisation Forbidden Stories, who will allow the continuation of stories compiled by journalists either killed, incarcerated or threatened and unable to continue their work.
Supporting this collective of journalists will enable them to protect, pursue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder. It is the only existing program with this mission.