"Inner conflict hurts like hell" Painting

I'm Qandle. I never envisioned myself as an artist. Art had no place in my world—until the day a car accident irrevocably altered my life. A traumatic brain injury left me relearning the simplest act of walking. During those early months of recovery, vivid, inexplicable images began to surface in my mind. Unable to articulate them to others, I turned instinctively to painting. The first image I ever brought to life was a candle. From that moment, Qandle was born—not merely a name, but a symbol of fragile light emerging from darkness. What began as survival soon became devotion. Painting restored my balance, both physically and emotionally, and grew into the very axis of my existence. My artistic pursuit is to translate suppressed emotions—fear, grief, rage, vulnerability—onto canvas. I want to confront the shadows that people conceal, and to invite them to acknowledge the duality of their own being: both the luminous and the obscure. Whether my work is seen or unseen is irrelevant. Art became my companion when I was stripped of everything else. I will paint until my final breath—because art remained when nothing else did.