she embraces... Transfiguration. 2023

Collage on off-white Rivoli paper backed with foam board. Drawing in archival black ink dated Monday, November 21st. Niamh: “The drawing seems to portray a ghoulish monstrous skull with three eyes, but there is a tenderness in him as he seems to be cradling a beaked creature with huge eyes. I feel it’s about the nurture, kindness and courage one needs to be re-born as their true self, whether it’s accepting addiction, or co-dependence, divorce, or embodying and learning about your own relationship to gender. I’m just always trying to figure out why the fuck I’m alive and how to continue. We keep going because we’re here. I lose touch with reality when I isolate but I can also be my most creative when I spend extended time alone. I’m avoidant, I don’t sleep, I want not to eat. It’s helpful for me to remember I need to STOP, SLOW DOWN. STAY. That’s why I attend support groups, seeing the same faces every week, having a place to stop, sit and get in touch with yourself. I always want to leave. I find it hard to stay in a place where vulnerability is the goal. Lady Gaga has a quote: “I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.” I’m a sensitive person who needs love, needs to be hugged, needs to chat about anything and everything, yet I rarely admit that to myself. Remembering is the hard part.

9 x 6 inches unframed