As I Live and Breathe I Swear I’ll Break Free

2020

graphite; watercolor; Faber Castel pens; black and red India ink; illustration pens; gesso; red, blue, and yellow acrylic paint

18x24in.

This was the first work completed after The Human Ignition exhibition. While the show was up I realized the scale of how many issues were being addressed. Like the multiple conversations taking place, any given person can be experiencing multiple trials at once and it can feel overwhelming, all-consuming. This work represents the epilogue to that entire exhibition, where perseverance and struggle intermingle and tussle. The everyday individual is tired, exhausted, yet every day the individual gets up and faces the day fully equipped and dressed for success. And while constricted by all their trials and adversities, free-falling with no one and nothing to reach out to, the only incentive to keep pushing is the promise of brighter days ahead.