Stoic Reflex manifests the ubiquitous urge to keep a straight face, confronting the motivations and consequences of such habitual behavior. The body, and the face in particular, represents the internal self to the external world, inextricably linking expression and vulnerability. Each opportunity for expression entails a cost-benefit analysis between what can be gained or lost by revealing some truth about oneself. The amalgamation of faces and mineral formations signifies the perhaps unnatural state of self-control or self-denial, while also questioning what we would become if we shed our straight faces, for better or for worse.
10 x 15 in, watercolor and gouache on paper.
Published in Soft Times Quarterly Vol. 4 (Seasons).
