10" × 11" | Oil Pastel on Paper | Original Artwork
A woman looks directly outward while holding a gesture of silence at her lips in The Cost of Keeping the Peace. Her face is constructed from vivid planes of turquoise, green, violet, rose and blue, yet the boldness of the colour stands in tension with everything she has refused to express.
She has learned to conceal her lived experience so that those around her can remain comfortable in theirs. Anger and resentment accumulate behind the composed surface, but fear of abandonment keeps the truth contained. She preserves her family, her friendships and the appearance of peace by withholding the parts of herself that might disturb them.
The irony is that those closest to her no longer know who she is. More painfully, after years of reshaping herself around the needs of others, she has begun to forget who she is as well.
The Cost of Keeping the Peace considers silence not as absence, but as an active and exhausting form of self-erasure.
Original artwork. Signed MC Bevan.
Includes a signed Certificate of Authenticity.
10" × 11" | Oil Pastel on Paper | Original Artwork
A woman looks directly outward while holding a gesture of silence at her lips in The Cost of Keeping the Peace. Her face is constructed from vivid planes of turquoise, green, violet, rose and blue, yet the boldness of the colour stands in tension with everything she has refused to express.
She has learned to conceal her lived experience so that those around her can remain comfortable in theirs. Anger and resentment accumulate behind the composed surface, but fear of abandonment keeps the truth contained. She preserves her family, her friendships and the appearance of peace by withholding the parts of herself that might disturb them.
The irony is that those closest to her no longer know who she is. More painfully, after years of reshaping herself around the needs of others, she has begun to forget who she is as well.
The Cost of Keeping the Peace considers silence not as absence, but as an active and exhausting form of self-erasure.
Original artwork. Signed MC Bevan.
Includes a signed Certificate of Authenticity.
