Younger self never understood what was going on. It was like everyone else had been filled in on some important detail that I just didn’t know. A lot of that unknowing was around how to make others pleased, and although I tried my best, eventually I had to be who I truly was, not who I was expected to be.
Now that I’m old and grown, I’ve come to understand that being my authentic self is the only way that I can find peacefulness. These six pictures trace that journey, from me as a four year old who couldn’t fulfill her mother’s fantasy of the perfect little girl, to me as a spiritual being coming to grips with her eventual blindness, to the time of the pandemic when I had nothing to do but be the artist I always had been, to finding my soulmate, to my eventual blooming. Self portraits are difficult for someone who is much more comfortable on the other side of the camera, but this series (called Mirror) has has been revelatory to me. The asemeic writing describes all the things I don’t have words to say. I hope by sharing it, I will encourage others in that journey to becoming their most true person.