Masks can be used both to hide and to reveal. In these images, I use masks to obscure the face, but also to represent an outward expression of an inner emotional state.
In "Thoughts and Free Thoughts," one may ask whether the woman is wearing a mask that obscures her face, or whether her head is composed solely of paper airplanes. The viewer must then contemplate what this decapitation signifies, whether it is a freeing dispersion of identity or an evacuation of the self.
In the "Hidden in Plain Sight" images, I place a masked woman within a larger social setting. I am intrigued by images containing many characters, and upon viewing one, I always attempt to "find myself" within the image, looking for a character with which to identify. I personally identify with the masked girl in all the images, but the viewer may identify with any of the characters present in the scene. For me, the flower girl represents how one feels oneself to be strange and out of place in certain social situations. When confronted with one of these situations I mentally try to hide myself, not participating in conversation, even as I feel my strangeness. Yet in these images, I attempt to place this uncanniness in a positive light, exposing the flower girl to be no more unusual than the surrounding situation.