Grade 11, Etobicoke School of the Arts, ON

I am a student artist who's been creating art for myself to showcase to others. I root myself in self-discovery by crafting pieces that are my attempt to visualize the binary of emotional display. Used to tackle expectations of perfection within my familial heritage. Every creation serves as a reflection or checkpoint of my progress as I weave together a story through various mediums—painting, embroidery, and textiles. Art serves as my voice, a means to portray the changing nature of stability and to realize internal vulnerability. Change and I exist as separate beings, seemingly opposing units of life. While change is fundamentally living, my connection with it feels the opposite. Physically, I see changes, but emotionally, unable to tell what's hidden beneath the surface. Struggling against the idea of imperfection in a sense of perfectness is my shield against my own self;

if I am not perfect, what am I?