Artist: HANNAH

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Traditionally, self-portraits are used by artists to portray past and present experiences as well as personal feelings and expressions. In my concentration, I explore the concept of childhood memories as well as my own fears throughout childhood. My artwork highlights the evolution of my strongest emotions and fears as a young child to a young adult. Some of the pieces towards the end of the series show conquered fears.

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"Shower Curtain"-  In this piece, I explore my fear of taking showers as a young teenager. As a result of watching scary films and overthinking, I feared what lingered beyond the curtain of the shower which triggered my anxiety.

 

"Storm"-  This piece portrays my conquered fear of storms. As a child, I had a crippling fear of thunder, lightning, strong winds, and anything that resulted from a storm. In this piece, I presented my present self laughing despite the storm and catching the rain as it falls to show that storms no longer negatively impact me.

 

"Clowns"- In this piece, I show my fear of clowns. It is me as a child looking troubled into the distance while aware that there is a man with a clown mask looking over my shoulder. It is a representation of what, at the time, would have been my worst nightmare.

 

"Needle and Thread"- In this piece, I explore two different stages of life. In the first image, I presented my younger self looking carefree and happy without a care in the world. In the second image, I present my older self with my lips sewn shut. This is a representation of how as I have gotten older, I have felt the need, at times, to conform to society’s standards. My fear of what people think has altered who I am.