My Mental Health Series *ongoing project
I have always been inspired by Frida Kahlo and her self portraits. In 8th grade I drew my first symbolic self portrait. I left out details like my eyes and lips, but I emphasized my blemishes (or things I used to think were blemishes) like the mole on my face and the roundness in my cheeks that I had at the time. It was relieving to finish and see that self portrait. I always found relief in self portraits, I would dabble in drawing, painting and photographing myself, mostly in times where I felt most lost. In JAN 2020 I decided to start pursing my self portraits in a more deliberate way. I wanted to not only document my feelings, but translating them into visual imagery helps me process things that are troubling me. What I didn't expect was the amount of support that came with these images. I found that my visuals were not only my own voice but I was saying things that other people want to express also.
Many of these portraits were just shared as social media post. So I will be collecting them and adding them to this page as I have time. Then eventually it'll be caught up. lol
Life To Neisha
I have always been moved by Michelangelo's painting The Creation of Adam, for this concept I wanted to pull certain elements of inspiration from that great painting in the Sistine Chapel.
But as you can see, in my take there are a lot of things different. I am my own god and there are no angels. Also, Adam reaches back out to God to receive life, but I often times find myself so involved in my past that I am not seeing what is right before my eyes. And for this reason, the Neisha that wants to give life is desperate, holding her hands out like "girl, why wont you just take my hand??"
I do that to myself a lot.
Also, another major detail that was intentional, is the original painting background is almost all white, but mine is all darkness. .
