Ophelia Reborn

This piece is made to represent those who are looking for artwork to visually express difficult emotions in a physical way. I feel as if within the art world there have been a specific type of painting and creating that include the artist themselves in a position where they are dying, being killed, or injured to represent how they feel about themselves or as an attempt to atone for their perceived sins and wrongdoings. With this knowledge, my piece exists as a portrait of myself, but also of what I have been enduring within my current college experience. It has felt like I have died and become a whole new person, and I wanted to represent that. One element in my artwork that I like to use across all my pieces is the use of metallic details as well as the including of writing. For this piece, I decided to use parts of the last act of Hamlet. A minor yet important detail I included was the type of plants I used within this painting. I depict wormwood, mugwort, garden sage, daffodils and ferns, which are all symbolic of rebirth historically and in spiritual practices.