I create visual stories through collage paintings, focusing on uncomfortable and often veiled emotions. These narratives are built intuitively through layers of materials and constructed personal symbolism. Figures are given new personas by having their faces transformed into inanimate objects, nearly revealing their innermost thoughts and emotions. These graphically appealing figures feel simple yet stifling and not free. Under the impossible polished veneer, is hidden who the figure is or wants to be. Societal expectations have obscured the chance of an authentic self, making following the set cultural path safe and any deviation or outburst perilous. To give each figure a moment of exposed, vulnerable truth, handwritten and typed text is added. The look of the text is subtle; the words are not. This momentary glimpse spotlights what is taught to be kept concealed.