Self Portrait - Sunny April

2016

This work was done for inclusion into the group show "Self Portraiture" at the Brunswick Street Gallery in 26th July – 11th August 2016

As long as we have been drawing, we have drawn ourselves and one another.

Artist statement

In April 2014 I was on a walk into the city, one of those walks where you want to humblebrag on social media about how lovely a day it is, I remember it vividly. That changed in an instant as I became the sole witness to a young woman falling out of a 7 story car park, down to the solid pavement below in front of me. For the next 45 minutes, I was with her, calling the ambulance, softly telling her to just hold on and that help was coming, watching her vacant eyes stare at the grey stone splattered with blood, unwillingly burning into memory ‘her’. The ambulance arrived and so did the police. I had to give a statement and was handed a card with a number to call for counselling and then I was told I should leave. The evening that followed that event I was alone and my mind shattered. The days directly after were a living hell both waking and sleeping, without remission. The months and finally now years of coming back to who I was on that lovely day have been hard and I still have a long way to go.

This portrait of myself aims to show that hope can return through blackest of nights. That fragments that used to make you the whole can be found again. Give time to heal and tell someone that you’re suffering, it really does help to open up about whatever is hurting you.