A classical bust, exhibiting perfection and serenity, is contrasted by the splash of vibrant, colorful paints dripping down its face. These marble busts, especially if Greek, are meant to embody stoicism, emphasizing living in accordance to nature and reason, and forms a kind of idealized masculinity. I thought the deep blue background and blurred edges created a dream-like feeling while the messy, chaotic paint is releasing emotion.

I titled this piece “wistful”, as I don’t read this expression as stoic, but rather of longing, perhaps yearning for another, for expression, or for some release. Perhaps he is aching to be more than what people see, to say something, or to cry, but he is made of stone. I see the paint as softening his image, queering it. It is pouring out, reclaiming a historically rigid norm of masculinity.

How many of us are shaped by external expectations, from our behavior to how we present our gender? What could it be like if we allowed our messiest, most human aspects of ourselves to also be the brightest?