Emerging from the Depths embodies the internal battle of living beneath expectation and perfectionism — of hiding behind a mask for so long that the self beneath it begins to suffocate. It speaks to years of chronic stress, illness, and anxiety collapsing into grief and depression, and to the quiet devastation of losing former versions of oneself.
The fractured mask represents survival through performance — presenting fragments instead of wholeness to avoid abandonment. As it breaks, the hand beneath emerges misshapen and hollowed, marked by exhaustion and healing that is anything but gentle.
The piece holds the tension between collapse and resilience: the brutality of growth, the emptiness that follows burnout, and the slow, painful act of reclaiming identity. Even in ruin, the hand still reaches — not in perfection, but in persistence.
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