Layers of Self

The face was never drawn. It emerged from the layers.

Layers of Self explores the distance between who we appear to be and everything that has made us who we are. At first, the composition appears to be a field of repeated, flowing strokes. Look longer and a human face begins to emerge from within them.

There is no single line that creates the portrait. The face exists because hundreds of separate marks cross, overlap and depend upon one another. Each stroke can be read as a fragment of a life: memory, expectation, fear, love, loss, ambition, failure and belonging.

Some lines remain visible. Others disappear beneath stronger marks. From a distance they form an identity. Up close, that identity breaks apart again into individual strokes.

The hidden face becomes a metaphor for the self. We are not one fixed thing, but the accumulation of everything we have carried, survived, accepted, rejected and become.

The face is not simply hidden behind the lines. The lines are what create the face. Sometimes understanding a person requires looking beyond the first layer.