This psychological portrait is a project where my intention is to render myself beyond the my physical veneer. It is a diptych in which I represent myself in two different modes. The first piece “Nurture” is one of the most beautiful memories that I have of my childhood, being with my mother. I always felt protected, happy and innocent. In this self-portrait I explore the sentiment that I kept in my heart of my mother looking at me and I looking back at her. The spectator has the same perspective as my mother. I rendered myself as a child at the house that I was born. My mother is rendered wearing the same clothes from a 1980’s photograph in the same house. In this piece, my mother is the adult and I am the child, exploring the idea of time and space.

In the second piece “Confidence” I took the history of dealing with struggles with my gender identity and life challenges, like losing my mother, that took me years to accept and become confident. Without feeling that I belonged in any place, or even in my own body, the only comfort that I had was having the thought of my mother. But, with time I got better, feeling that I came out of the storm looking triumphant by having my mother by my side even that she wasn’t in this world. In this piece, I rendered myself as an non-binary adult and my mother’s spirit as a child holding my hand. Her image is based on a photograph of her childhood. Complementing the first piece I played with the idea of time, space and cycles. Nurture & Confidence were the recipient of the Jurors’ Choice Award at the 2018 Pride London Art Show.