28 x 38 cm (11 x 15 inches)
(Larger sizes available on request).
Inks and mixed media with underprint on Fabriano Artistico 640gsm HP Watercolour paper.
1 of 9
SOLD
8 handmade variants available to order.
Sometimes, reality feels as brittle and delicate as the mirror glass in which we earnestly search for our true selves. The boarding pass to our private realities is nothing more than a construct—perception. It is everything and nothing at once, more mutable and malleable than most people realize.
It was only when my own perception became distorted beyond anything resembling collective reality that I began to explore its shape. How do you see seeing? How do you perceive perception?
Now, I strive for continuous, intense examination of my beliefs, values, ideas, and memories—with the help of those who See, the Anchors. I try to look at the lenses that warp my vision, instead of looking through them. Glimmers of understanding have formed. There is no single truth—at least, not one we will ever fully see or understand. The fragility of my own perception both terrifies and fascinates me.
Only through living in consultation, and grounding myself in connection and community, does my brittle vision of the world remain even somewhat aligned.
I believe shared realities are less fragile than private ones. Our connections to others hold together the delicate things—the broken lenses left uncertain and distorted by hurt.
Living with mental illness, if nothing else, is a relentless teacher of unwanted lessons—perhaps its only redeeming feature.
A friend saw body dysmorphia in this piece; another might see something else entirely. Each perception tells me a new story, a person-story. That, to me, is the work speaking.
—NM
