8.5 x 11 in., Acrylic Paint, 2024

The idea with this painting is to show how growing up can effect you. This is my life lesson painting. When I was younger I didn't care what anyone thought of me and I wore the craziet outfits. That's why I made the little girl wear a polka dotted shirt and the tutu because that was my daily outfit when I was young. I wanted to make it seem like the older version of me was watching the younger and happier version of me kind of running off without her. This isn't my favorite painting but I think it's important to paint paintings you don't necessarily enjoy. This painting has a deep meaning to me and I think I portrayed it well. 

For my last painting I wanted it to have meaning to lots of people not just me. I combined social issue and collage. The idea behind this painting was to try and show mental illness, especially in todays kids, by cutting out words from magazines. Some of the words are positive or can be seen as positive but most aren't. Some of my favorite phrases are "So far, So good", "Personal Setbacks", and "Beautiful?". One thing I think I could fix is the outline of the girl. I say this because I bet you didn't know that was supposed to be a girl. The hair and the shoulders is the only thing I outlined. My favorite part of my painting is in the bottom left corner. I always sign with my initials but I thought it was funny to add "proudly presents" after it. The idea of the spiral of thoughts was inspired from the book cover Turtles All the Way Down. The whole message of the painting is that thoughts are out of our control sometimes but that doesn't mean they're necessarily bad.