Baking is a very shown hobby right now in quarantine, mostly on social media. The experiences of the taste of your own cooking and trying new and exciting things, is often the blocking of any true obstacles, such as the big mess it makes, the limited ingredients there are, or any behind-the scenes “reality” so in my diptych my intention was to show a finished cake but next to it a picture of the giant mess it actually makes.

For my diptych, one photo is me in my natural state. The other is a photo of me using a Snapchat filter, wearing less modest clothing and makeup. The reality of these two pictures is that the one on the right is more of a “catfish” version of myself. While I still do look like myself, it’s not who I am on an everyday basis. I don’t get decked up every single day nor do people see me as a filtered version.

Social media has been the biggest catfish of all. The "reality" of those pictures is often filtered, edited, and even photoshopped beauty. We must be more aware of the things we do and watch. We can't afford to lose ourselves just for validation.

In today’s society, people strive to be perfect and sometimes refuse to show their flaws. Social media allows people to put on a facade to make them see themselves a certain kind of way. My drawing represents that nothing is ever perfect the first time around and sometimes things can be out of our control.

My mother has been working constantly during this pandemic as an emergency manager which is a very demanding job with many hours of work involved. This is her working into late hours of the night on the computer. These late nights have caused her to lose sleep and not be herself as much. This is to represent her true reality and how she really is because behind a screen her work cannot be appreciated ,but I see her diligence and understand through these old photos that she is humorous, fashionable, smart, and beautiful.

(it reads)

"I'm the tallest!"

"...is actually 5'3"