Don't Speak - Fractured 4 Painting

This work is one piece in my series called “Fractured”. This particular mixed media painting is 12”x16” on gallery wrapped canvas. These pieces were begun during the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic. As I was the only female model available during this time, I felt it was a perfect opportunity to examine my own mind and who I am as an artist. It gave me the chance to take time to change my process and hone in on new concepts I wanted to explore. In college, many assignments were self portraits. I hadn’t been confronted with my own image in such a way for many years. I wanted to reacquaint myself to the intricacies of my own face, while delving deeper into what it means to really be me. This body of work explores the idea of the many facets of human personalities. In many ways, we fracture our personalities depending on our situation. We may present ourselves in the way we wish to be seen, instead of acting as our true selves. We hide many pieces of ourselves from the rest of the world. Our incredibly complex series of thoughts and actions mostly go unnoticed and unexplained to those around us. When we examine ourselves, we must confront the fact that we have different sides to our personalities. These can include the pieces that could be considered, evil, vain, vapid, loving, passionate, and frightened. We must find a way to unite these pieces so that we can become whole. Without studying ourselves and who we truly are, we remain fractured.