For this self-portrait about identity, I wanted to use the concept of death, considering during the pandemic death has almost been desensitized for me, seeing death as just a number exponentially growing on a screen. It feels wrong to make the pain caused by an infectious disease nothing but a small number in the millions, a number that most don’t even dwell on anymore. Covid did show me how fleeting and fragile life is, how death is something that can take away so much so fast. It is kind of calming knowing that it really is inevitable, and what we rot away into is just underneath us begging to come to the surface. The skull and a self-portrait juxtaposed show the little difference there is between life and death.