Eyes Wide Shut
“Sometimes the parts of us that are most seen are not the parts that matter most.”
The Story
This piece started with frustration.
Frustration at how often we are reduced to fragments body parts, surface impressions and how rarely we are seen whole.
I had been noticing it everywhere.
Online. In public. In conversations.
It struck me how quickly people forget that there is a full, layered human being behind the face, behind the body carrying stories they will never ask about.
And so, Eyes Wide Shut was born.
A woman turned away.
Her face hidden but her chest, exposed.
Two faces placed where her heart is.
Not to provoke but to speak.
Because too often, this is how society sees us: the body first, the mind and soul last if at all.
Why It Exists
This piece exists because I was tired of how shallow our gaze can be.
We praise beauty. We praise appearances.
We rarely ask about what is beneath them.
And women especially know this burden.
Seen first for form not for thought.
Measured first by body not by voice.
The two faces in this piece are deliberate.
They represent the fullness of a person: strength and softness, wisdom, and vulnerability, all living side by side.
But society will miss it eyes wide open, but still blind.
And that is why her face is turned away.
Because sometimes the only way to reclaim yourself is to refuse to be fully seen at least not in the way the world expects.
Artist’s Note
“I drew this on a day when I was angry but also clear.
I wanted to create something that would stop people in their tracks, and then quietly ask them to think:
What are you really looking at? And why?”
I do not know how many of us are walking through life, hiding parts of ourselves that the world would not bother to notice anyway.
But maybe this piece can remind us:
We are whole. We are layered.
And we are worth seeing fully.
If this piece reaches you, I hope it leaves you with one question:
“How often am I really seeing and being seen?”