I can't see you. You can't hurt me.
Grace Z.
Water color and color pencil on paper
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This piece reckons with the realities of escapism, and the mutual and internal hurt of conflicting identities. Inspired by the Roman myth of ostriches burying their head to escape danger, imagery of an ostrich is juxtaposed against a reflection of an Eastern cultural practice of turning away from issues. The head is a self portrait gazing into the distance bursting into geometric prisms and cultural tchotchkes; an allusion to Salvador Dali’s 1951 “Raphaelesque Head Exploding”. Contrasting references take up the left (west) and the right (east). June bugs and cicadas; gulls and swallows; eagles and cranes; smoking guns and incense. They fade into each other as the prisms fade into organic shapes, falling into roots of conflicting birth and heritage. A chaos overtaking the head overtly out of sight yet gaudy in a ploy for attention.
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Being creative is an aspiration. An ability to create a world absorbing anything and everything around you. When I see fellow creatives I am taken into a world entirely of their making. A reflection and manifestation of obsessions magnified to extreme degree. Taking control of what’s around me, creating it.
