Disembodied, But Whole
“Disembodied, But Whole”, Mixed media: acrylic paint, acrylic marker, metallic leaf, silver thread, and flexible mirror sheets on canvas, 19.5x27.5in, 2025
“I began this painting with no clear plan in mind. It breathed life into me as I into it. Each stroke of the paintbrush and adornment added pulled at the tangled strings in my heart, ironing out thoughts I previously had no words for. I painted a woman, fragmented across space, her skin bare, presence raw and vulnerable. She gave voice to the sense of displacement I was previously unable to name. Growing up, I was never American enough to be American or Dominican enough to be Dominican. I was unable to feel whole, parts of me scattered across the diaspora.
Yet in my recent commitment to honoring my roots, I felt determined to make myself whole. Channeling the strength and purpose of my ancestors, I picked up the silver thread and sewed into the canvas, pulling the pieces of my painting and of myself together. While my pieces remain scattered, they are not broken. Across space and time, my history, my present, and my future are joined. My pain transformed into something beautiful, regenerative.
I create a space for future generations to belong without ambiguity. In adding fragments of mirrors to the painting, I both invite and challenge the viewer to join me; to determine where they stand in the scope of history; to see themselves as active participants in either restoration or complicity.
I choose to stop searching for the place I belong and instead to create it, for myself and for those who follow me.”
—Steph
