This piece is an unofficial self-portrait of my emotional experience. I painted it while live-streaming, and it relates specifically to my experiences of this being an emotional year. Our emotions can be so immense and oceanic, we might feel we could drown in them. Or be swallowed up in the flood of feeling that comes from unpredictable showers. The self-portraiture aspect of this painting comes from my process of learning the experience is not inherently bad or good. This figure isn’t drowning- she’s wading, floating in a sea of vibrant emotion. Her Mona Lisa-esque smile communicates her awareness she isn’t endangered, she’s feeling. I’ve felt like this at times. Overwhelmed, or as though I couldn’t breathe through the climate of this year, but acknowledging these are just feelings and they will pass. Because emotions are what make up our human experience. My process of accepting the good and bad in these experiences, and viewing them with the clarity they’re not there to swallow me into the bottomless deep. They’re a part of me, flowing from and around me, and it’s a beautiful state of being.