Torn Apart, acrylic paint on 24x48” canvas.
One thing I have struggled with my whole life as an indigenous woman has been the division of the identities i’ve had to assume in order to make my way through the different worlds I have to live in. In one, i have my culture and in the other, i have this western/colonial identity that’s just trying to survive in this weird world, and in the middle is me being ripped apart by the internal struggle from having to keep those identities separate.
I wanted this painting to feel emotional, i wanted it to feel like you could hear my screams; I wanted that internal anguish to be materialized. Many times while painting this I felt that pain, I felt those tears but in the end I felt relief. Relief from finally externalizing those feelings and finally releasing myself from those shackles.