Split Presence

When I painted Split Presence, I was haunted by the feeling of duality. Sometimes we exist in two worlds at once — the outer one that everyone sees, and the inner one we reveal only to ourselves. The lines and colors in this work are no accident: the left side is cleaner, more geometric, more orderly, while the right side is warmer, more textured, more intimate. The black lips symbolize silence, the things left unsaid, yet present in every gesture.