I’m glad to be away from the self I am when others are around

2026

28” x 25.5”

Acrylic ink & pen on wood assemblage

SOLD

This is a quote from the author Pico Lyn, and one I can relate to extremely well. I always feel like my actual self is hidden under whatever layers I am forced to wear to the outside world. We all do this to a certain extent, but living with autism this truly feels like a survival skill. The top section is the masked self, the cute little girl riding precariously on a serpent’s scaled back. The balloon represents her thought s and feelings being prepared to release to the world. The rainbow city is the pretty mask she is putting on to the world. The rows of houses below is society/ other “normal” people. Below you see the inner mechanisms keeping the facade afloat, a huge interconnected labyrinth of learned behaviors and tactics to appear normal. Inside it all is the true inner self. It is represented by a tree, which in my work means the eternal, and is doubly representing nature as being the only true escape from all this normalcy.