We live in a society today where people feel a lot more liberated in speaking their minds, whether it’s warranted or not. The digital age has made it incredibly easy for us to hide behind our phones and computers as we confront those things that bother or upset us in some way. A lot of times, whether we know the person or not, we say things in an instant we can never take back. We say things we might not really mean, out of anger, jealously, spite, etc. But sometimes, every so often, what if we chose silence as a response instead? Sometimes the greatest way to say something, is to say nothing at all, as Justin Timberlake shares in his song SAY SOMETHING. No truer words have ever been spoken, in my opinion. Sometimes there’s just no reasoning with someone, or sometimes you just need time to cool down and gain perspective before having a dialogue. Sometimes silence, choosing to say nothing, is the best way to say what you need to say. This painting is about that; it’s about my own journey with silence. Silence isn’t usually the easy path, but it can absolutely be the necessary one. In spite of pressures around you from others (“everybody says say something, say something, say something”) sometimes you have to stay true to the silence you need in order to preserve yourself, in order to figure things out (“and in my heart somewhere, I wanna go there ... but still I don’t go there ... I don’t want to get caught up in the rhythm of it ...”). I was looking at this painting recently and saw what looks like to me, a figure sitting cross legged with her arms up around her head, as if trying to contain everything inside of her. All of her beauty, all of her pain, all of her words, trying to get out as she desperately tries to hold them in. The color palette speaks of peace, of surrender, of sadness and contemplation. The needing to hold back, to stay out of the fight. This was the piece I finished before MILLION REASONS, and it’s so interesting to me, the contrast between the two.

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