Recently,
A short comic,
by
ARTIST STATEMENT
2020 has been a year of discomfort; the global pandemic, human rights violations, police brutality, upcoming presidential election that may or may not be subverted by a fascist regime defunding the USPS—the list is never-ending. Every month brings a new store of horrors in an explosion of pent-up issues that have been secretly stewing under our feet. There is an undercurrent of anxiety in the everyday, and it is impossible to forget or deny its existence. This shared experience of fear is something that feels very unique to this time period. We all have our own personal anxieties, but it’s the first time I can say that there is a huge overlap in our Venn diagram of worries. What we do with these feelings vary from person to person, but I wanted to share my personal account of reckoning in my work.
For my piece, I decided to use graphic narrative as my medium since I feel that it best communicates how my thoughts have evolved over a length of time. It also allows me the leeway to express my experience through a combination of words and pictures, which strengthens my ability to accurately portray my perspective. Since my work was created for a virtual exhibit, I decided that utilizing digital media would be the best and easiest way to maintain its quality.
Initially, my vision for the piece stemmed from multiple questions relating to isolation, human connection, and empathy. However, I found that choosing one topic—discomfort—helped to focus my artwork, especially since it is a short piece.
In my comic, I used the discomfort of my triple eyelid as a means to explore how my personal anxiety relates to the state of the world. My discomfort, also illustrated by my day to day life, is miniscule compared to the issues we now face as a nation. However, choosing to deny my fears in favor of ignorance only makes the “awakening” more difficult to accept. Instead, I have found that using my anxieties to work towards a productive and well-informed lifestyle has given me the potential for personal growth. There are still days where I feel overwhelmed by the state of the world and my inability to enact change on my surroundings, but I have found that maintaining sanity is much easier when you realize that nothing feels sane at the moment.
