This is a recent retrospective self-portrait at the age of fifteen. As a survivor of child abuse, removed from school, severely gaslighted and made homeless during my teens in the late 1960s, I have attempted to capture the innocence of the child victim during that bleak personal period. The image is carved in thick paint using pallet knives, in a process of attacking the broken self-image inflicted by emotionally illiterate adults. Shades of white depict the fragile vulnerability of the child.
Oil on canvas.
