Time

They say time heals all wounds…they lied.

Time doesn’t heal a thing. Time simply buries. The passing of days, weeks, months, and years boasts a delusion of healing. Then even the slightest bump against that sore you thought was scabbing over, and you’ll find the pain as real as the day you got the wound. I’ve felt the sting of thinking I’ve taken several steps forward, only to find myself back at the start. Like any physical wound, we have to clean it before the healing begins and that process is almost as painful as the injury itself. When the pain is so severe, we will do anything to just not feel it anymore. That instinct can lead us to take the quickest and least painful solution but in the end, it’s not the immediate solution we think it is. It’s only prolonging the process or, even worse, it is infecting the wounds already there. Bitterness, hardening, numbing, unhealthy coping, the list goes on and on. If you’ve got wounds you know these unwelcome visitors all too well. 

So here’s to choosing to opt out of the painless passing of time. The allowing of healing the wounds underneath the surface. Here’s to pouring salt all over our wounds and fighting like hell to stay standing through the pain until one day we realize our wide open wounds have turned into scars. 

This series comprises eight original paintings meant to depict our efforts as humans to paint over our messy wounds and scars. I hope they serve as a reminder that there is no human without personal pain underneath our painted exteriors. Something I’ve learned is that pain lies to us in so many destructive ways. It tells us we are alone and experiencing something unique only to us. The reality is that everyone has differing degrees of the very same pain and it’s actually something that can unite us better than we can imagine. Pain tends to lie and tells us to let time work its magic. Time has no magic. 

 I hope these pieces encourage others to deal with those pesky wounds that never seem to turn into scars. I also hope they remind you that those messy scars are the evidence of the hard work you have put in to survive. Lastly, I hope these pieces show you that when you take a step back and look at what seems like chaos up close, you find something uniquely beautiful.