Journal Entry #1014

Journal Entry #1014

Maxwell, Kylyn

My identity isn't defined by my appearance, although it’s the way the world typically recognizes me, as it’s the most visible part of who I am. Journal Entry #1014 is a personal journey into uncovering what I hide in my most sacred space: my tattered journal, where I write without restriction. Each entry reveals who I am at different moments in time, far beyond the limitations of a government-issued ID. I've always been intrigued by the detail in a U.S. passport, where alphanumeric characters and patterned ink are used to create your photo, reducing my identity to something even more confined. In this context, my personal passport photo was desaturated and carefully painted onto a hand-stretched canvas. Beyond this simplified identity, fragments of my journal are inscribed on the canvas with ballpoint pens. Looking over my old journal entries felt unsettling, forcing me to face parts of myself I had forgotten and reconnect with pieces of me scattered across time and places. I became anxious that I had revealed too much from my journal on the canvas, so I concealed it with paint swatches and abstract brushstrokes. The chaotic background mirrors the constant motion of my mind, hinted at by the spiral motifs throughout the piece. This painting became a process of reconciling with my identity, mind, and soul, and now it exists within the boundaries of a square canvas.

2025