This is the first collage I ever made after becoming ill. It depicts through color all the different emotions I feel day to day. Sometimes things feel turbulent and tears spill out of my eyes like crashing waves or a tipping glass. Sometimes I’m grasping to hold on amidst the mess, amidst the pain, like the girl in the back, when all I want to do is give up. Sometimes I feel liberated and comforted and burst out of the stormy seas in gratitude for a not so bad day despite the mess of life, like the girl in the front. Either way, I’m on the canvas of life as long as I have breath in my lungs and no matter which girl I feel like on any given day, the artistry of this piece wouldn’t exist if i didn’t. You truly can create beauty despite pain.