‘Self-Portrait II’
Me—years ago, in my Brooklyn apartment.
I took the reference photo on a quiet night, alone in the tub,
thinking about who I was becoming.
This is not just a painting of a girl with a lighter.
It’s a portrait of a version of me that carried both softness and edge,
ritual and rebellion, quiet and question.
We don’t always know we’re capturing something
we’ll want to return to later.
But I’m glad I did.