Fire on the Inside

Life is funny, though it certainly didn’t feel that way at the time. Looking back, I can see how lost I was, and how relentlessly the universe seemed to push me toward deeper self understanding. I had finally begun to make progress and find a sense of comfort when another meeting at work caused everything to unravel.

Have you ever needed to maintain a calm, professional exterior while feeling absolute rage inside? Throughout the meeting, I suppressed my emotions so intensely that my hands began to tremble. I could feel myself cracking. On the drive home, the image for this piece played over and over in my mind. Translating that rage into art became an unexpectedly cathartic release.

When I got home, I spent over two hours listening to Linkin Park and drawing flames. Once again, my entire perception of reality felt turned upside down, and I felt deeply misunderstood and undervalued.

Fire on the Inside is a self portrait, though I never looked in a mirror. Rather than focusing on realism, I chose to explore the emotions at play, incorporating elements of my own likeness to convey exactly how I felt in that moment.