Gazes Print

The path of life, the glances, those who judge you, those who approve of you, the otherness. Those who laugh and ignore you, and the person who truly sees you. Those who believe in you and give you the strength to continue. This is one of my first paintings from this new phase. It emerged as a specter from my mind without realizing it, a path and faces that look, a kind of will-o'-the-wisp and raised hairs, the faces smile but have no eyes, while one doesn't smile but looks at you, sees you, and recognizes you. When you've been a child and felt very ignored and lacking attention, you become addicted to being noticed. You constantly seek that affection, always asking for it, until you realize that the solution is the exact opposite: it's the affection and attention you should be giving, rather than constantly demanding it. Only in this way will you obtain precisely what you want: love, and you'll stop feeling like human wreckage. If you think about it and have managed to get this far, it's likely because someone believed in you at some point in your life. Painting, and creating in general, is a way of giving – to help, to offer, to explain what isn't understood, to spare others from what happened to you. A painting can be a traffic signal or a hidden message. When I made this painting, I didn't understand it yet. That's where the confusion it conveys comes from, but all the elements are there. Perhaps I was sending a message to my future self. The path of life, the gazes, those who judge you, those who ignore you, and those who might love you but you won't let them; the mystery. Nothing is easy. Everything works contrary to what you believed. This is one of my favorite paintings.