Copyright - Justine Odraskova
I am a human being, musician, artist and survivor of sexual abuse. Searching for answers in life, the magical world of music always showed me the way. The call of the inner self to be expressed brought me my first guitar when I was 9. Music became my means of expression, a language and a ‘tool’ to help heal the unspoken pain and my trauma. I learned to transform the energy of the trauma and use it as a positive force in life that translates into my diversity as a musician and my deep desire to create beauty in life.
In the metaphorical vegetable garden of our personal life, all our experiences grow; the beautiful and the less beautiful, the flowers and the weeds, our wisdom and insights but also our wounds and traumas. When we learn to maintain our garden, then we can make it little by little more beautiful and create fertile soil for our soul and our dreams.
By walking the path within, I see and understand how (sexual) abuse translates into us and our society with the associated effects on our unconscious. What does life show us when we are in pain and what does life ask of me? If we learn to understand the language of the soul, we can use it creatively.
Trauma often has the tendency to ‘reproduce’ itself when we do not resolve it. The unhealed part in us then begins to proliferate and seeks a way out through repetition and projection. When we learn to understand it, we can transform that ‘reproduction of trauma’ into the ‘reproduction of light’. By sharing my story and music, I want to bring awareness, healing and transformation around this current theme, for both the victims and the collective whole. Because I believe that when we can play on the strings of life and resonate with them, we automatically make the world and therefore ourselves more beautiful and lighter.
May life be a mirror and the reflections beautiful.
My vision:
Studies, work and more...
After years of self-study, I started my education in 2012 and obtained a professional bachelor's degree in guitar at the PXL-Music college in Hasselt (BE) in 2015. Besides being a guitarist, I also play drums, bass, trumpet, vocals, keyboards, electronics/software. I composed the solo album 'Candles' which is carried by Cie Tout Possible . Other projects under my name are 'Veerman' with 'Gefluister aan de stroom' and 'ROBBOTBETON'. I also wrote the compositions for the gypsy jazz trio 'Rosa' and I am the guitarist and singer of the progressive rock group 'Archont'.
In addition to my experience on stage, I also work as a sound engineer and sound designer off stage. I provided the sound design for the podcast “ De gewortelde man ” and the theater show “Courir dans le brouillard” ( Cie tout possible ) For which I am also the live-technician with a 360° sound system. I gained other experience as a technician at the cultural center in Beveren-waas and during the construction of various large festivals in Belgium such as Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop.
I gave music workshops in refugee camps in Belgium and the Netherlands on my own initiative and in collaboration with the 'Red Cross'. And I built a playground for children in the refugee camp Moria in Greece.
Besides being a musician, I am also a beekeeper, gardener and passionate about tea. I love permaculture and obtained my PDC (permaculture design course) in 2017. I helped to build the collective social vegetable garden “ Vasse Kweek” in Belgium and have been farming in my own garden in France for several years now. In my daily life, tea ceremonies, breathing exercises and meditations are part of my routine.
