Be Yourself

Be Yourself
16" x 22" | Mixed Media, Resin and Cloth on Wood Panel | Original Artwork

Be pretty. Smile. Fit in. Be normal. Don't be difficult. Stay quiet. Be nice.

From the moment we're young, we're handed an endless list of expectations about who we're supposed to be, how we're supposed to act, and what we're supposed to want.

Be Yourself takes those expectations and physically distorts them.

Handwritten phrases cover a piece of cloth that has been saturated in resin, manipulated, folded, compressed, and permanently hardened onto a wood panel. Words disappear into creases. Sentences become obscured. Expectations overlap until much of the message becomes impossible to follow.

Emerging from the middle of that chaos are two words painted in red:

BE YOURSELF!

The sculptural folds are an intentional part of the story. They represent the pressure of trying to fit ourselves into expectations that were never designed for us in the first place. The harder everything is pushed together, the less sense those outside voices begin to make.

At its core, Be Yourself is about stripping away the noise, expectations, labels, and versions of ourselves we've created for other people.

Because after everything we're told we're supposed to be, sometimes the hardest thing is simply being who we already are.

Original one-of-a-kind mixed media artwork. 16" x 22". Resin and cloth on wood panel.