Exhibit gives portraits of protectors

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - By Jessica Novak

Examiner Staff Writer

At the hospital after learning her estranged, abusive husband fatally shot her 2-year-old son, Richie, and 3-year-old daughter, Destiny, Lisa Spicknall proceeded to the roof to kill herself.

But a policeman’s words held her back. “Without you, the state won’t have a case against your ex-husband.”

Those words saved her and the hundreds of other women Spicknall has since reached in her role as victims counselor and advocate.

Spicknall is among the 26 subjects honored by the House of Ruth Maryland in its exhibit A Line in the Sand, debuting at Gallery Imperato in Baltimore before traveling across the state for a year.

For the exhibit, House of Ruth Maryland enlisted regional and national photographers to capture the essence of Spicknall and other subjects who have fought domestic violence and helped the House of Ruth in its first 30 years.

“A nurse took me into a room and I saw my son. He was dead. They told me that I couldn’t touch him because he was evidence,” Spicknall is quoted in wall text beside a portrait of herself in A Line in the Sand.

Among the 26 subjects honored are former Maryland Governor and Baltimore City Mayor William Schaefer, veteran journalist and “The Wire” creator David Simon, stabbing victim Jane Doe, who testified against her husband after he punctured her 57 times in front of her 4-year-old son, and former Baltimore City Police Officer Kate Wood, whose daughter, a victim of domestic violence, died in her arms.

Photographer Connie Imboden was hesitant at first to compose portraits for A Line in the Sand.

“It’s one thing to expose myself in my own work, but when dealing with someone else’s inner workings, it’s a tremendous responsibility. I wanted to reveal [Spicknall’s] strength and wisdom, and be very respectful of the powerful journey she’s gone through,” she said.

“Every single day in the newspaper or on TV, a woman is killed by her husband or a child is killed by his or her father,” said Kerri Wojciechowski, House of Ruth Maryland’s associate director of community relations. “We want people, when they hear or see those stories, to take them personally. We want people to be outraged.”

IF YOU GO

A Line In The Sand

When: Through June 27

Where: Gallery Imperato, 921 E. Fort Ave., Suite 120, Baltimore

A Line In The Sand will travel to Enoch Pratt Free Library June 30 through Aug. 1 before appearing in corporate lobbies, government buildings, schools and museums across Maryland through summer 2009.

jnovak@baltimoreexaminer.com