Year: 2023
Medium: Charcoal on Bristol Paper
Dimensions: 12 × 18 in
Series: Fragments of Self

Overview

Piece of Me is a charcoal drawing that explores identity as something partial and continuously forming. The work reflects on moments where the self feels present but unfinished, shaped by experience, memory, and internal change.

Conceptual Description

The image centres on a single eye emerging from a field of puzzle-like fragments. Some pieces align, others remain displaced, and certain areas resist completion. This structure mirrors the way identity often assembles unevenly, through accumulation rather than clarity.

The eye holds awareness without offering resolution. It suggests recognition without certainty, a self that sees itself forming but does not yet claim coherence. The fragmentation does not imply damage. Instead, it reflects an ongoing process of becoming, where absence and presence exist at the same time.

This work was motivated by a period of self-reflection, where identity felt layered and incomplete rather than fixed. The drawing does not attempt to resolve that state. It holds it.

Charcoal is used to soften transitions between fragments while maintaining distinction between forms. Tonal variation allows the pieces to shift between connection and separation, reinforcing the sense of identity as fluid and unstable.

Curatorial Context

Piece of Me positions fragmentation as a condition of awareness rather than loss. The work invites viewers to consider how identity is often experienced in parts, shaped gradually through lived experience rather than defined all at once.

By withholding completion, the drawing resists closure and certainty. Its stillness allows space for reflection rather than explanation.

Key Themes

fragmented identity
partial visibility
self-awareness
becoming
internal reflection

Artist’s Note

This drawing emerged from a time when my sense of self felt incomplete and in motion. I was interested in how identity can exist as fragments without needing to resolve into a single, finished form.