Skin Deep - Wendy Sullivan

Mixed Media Assemblage
15" x 30"
 
The smile, the calm exterior, the casual reply, they don’t show the turmoil beneath. Asked “How are you today?” The reply is automatic: “Fine”. We are not fine. Negative self-talk can leave scars the face doesn’t show. Inner critic too kind a word, inner murderer perhaps. Thoughts hidden, held so tightly inside, so wound that we think are going to explode. Surely someone can see it, in our eyes perhaps, desperate to be seen desperate to keep it hidden, locked away, screaming on the inside. Maybe something shows, a brittle smile, the shrieking eyes, the furrowed brow. Maybe nothing shows. Like beauty the calm is skin deep, the inner landscape a fury of anxiety, worry, recrimination, doubt. We are not fine.