The Mask
While building this website, I found this piece in a group of slides I’d apparently taken in the early 90’s, and while the photograph is poor quality & God only knows where the original is. The Mask commands a special page of it’s own among my collective work.
I was barely twenty years old in 1989 when I made this self-portrait. Here, I am the jester, the clown holding a “normal” face mask, which I needed to present myself in the world. It speaks volumes today, because at the time I was completely unaware I was a masking autistic. The image represents how I felt in my own skin, until 2023, when I set the mask down and gave myself permission to love myself for who I am.
My hope, in sharing this piece, is that it will encourage you to embrace your genuine self, give yourself permission to love who you are, and be there to support others who are still struggling to find themselves.
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?”-Rabbi Hillel