Drawing

In recent weeks I have been feeling trapped, even in my studio which I go to to feel more free and safe in myself. My mind has been blurred and confused. I have been going on more bike rides to help combat these feelings and in doing so I have been able to reminisce on the times when I was at my most open and carefree self.

On my bike rides I have been returning to the old graffiti walls where a number of people would meet up in the dead of night just to paint, hangout, listen to music, drink, etc... These moments made my brain shut off. I didnt have to think. I was in the moment. No voices. No faces.

Riding past these walls now, and seeing the new works popping up each week, is completely different with the new headspace I have compared to a previously clear mind. I see faces everywhere. There is one face in particular that is so clear to me, and I cannot escape it's glance following me as I pass it. It feels like I am being stared at.

I felt inclined to note the effects of these feelings, meaning that this graffiti work will be layered on top of my drawings. I shall highlight the face and add annotations. My drawing is developing away from my usual thought-out, detailed, structured work and is becoming more of a sketchbook.

I turned this into my second layer which I completed in cyan. I focussed more on the faces that I can see in the graffiti work, rather than reproducing the graffiti work itself. I combined these faces with more portraits of myself, merging them altogether into what looks more like a pattern than a cluster of faces.

**Note: Annoyingly I didn't take any photos of this development before moving onto the next stages of this BOW.