Many Faces

As a gay, person of color, most of my life has been a game of translation. I looked at life (and myself) through the lens of others. In my most recent series of self-portraits, I seek to explore my identity on my own terms. In this broach, antique shell cameos are bezel-set on my sawn out silhouette. I call this piece, “Many Faces” and is commentary on how we all wear different personas depending on the situation. Some may say that that is being inauthentic, however, I tend to think that we are a sum of our parts and each face is a facet of our character. In creating this piece, I couldn’t help but think of reading L. Frank Baum as a child and the character, Princess Langwidere, who could swap out and change her head. At the time, it fueled nightmares. Now I see that we are all complicated shapeshifters, wearing masks on top of masks and being the heroes of our own stories.