Untrue Self
Oil paint on canvas 24x30
Untrue Self serves as a companion piece to True Self, exploring the distorted ways we perceive ourselves in the digital age and the influence of social media on identity. For this piece, I photographed myself holding a phone in front of a mirror, to focus on how we curate and present our lives online. During the painting process, I masked sections of the underpainting with tape to reveal the “real” parts beneath the surface, symbolizing authenticity that often remains hidden. The smeared face and vibrant background reflect the ways we edit, glamorize, and distort our self-image to match what we think others want to see. To emphasize the ever-present gaze of online judgment, I painted disjointed eyes on paper, cut them into angular shapes, and collaged them onto the canvas, representing the many unseen viewers who watch, critique, and shape our sense of self.
