I Am Everyone I Have Ever Met And I Take Them With Me

Oil on 40 by 60cm canvas.

This piece is on the frustration of finding identity. It explores the rejection of a Filipino-presenting body image, and a yearning to be an alternate being. It delves into the idea of wanting to be a faceless human, or an animal indistinct from others.

It is the result of people-pleasing, and taking aspects of other people's personality with the Self. Often, this exposure and mirroring our surrounding can make us lose sight of our selves. While these intersecting identities of gender and ethnicity are arbitrary, it is comforting to find solid indicators of identity that we are proud of. Through this, the rejection of the physical body shows an underlying, deep-seated sense of shame in body image.