Catherine Phelan

My work has allowed me to push away my insecurities and has allowed me to grow into the person I want to be. My art has helped me heal, and I hope It can help others heal as well. I have struggled with low self-confidence and a fear of expressing my passions to the world. This inner turmoil on who I was or if I was good enough would devour me, until, I found an escape in art. Once I felt this freedom, I did not want to be boxed in again by any restrictions or fear. There was never one specific medium that I wanted to focus on, I wanted to learn them all. I wanted to master them to the best of my ability. I wanted to be free to choose. 

 

My series Beauty in Diversity Is about my struggle with self-love and our society's standards of Beauty. In this series I did a self-portrait, For the first time drawing myself I did not hate what I saw, I did not feel the hate that I normally felt for my own image. Through drawing others and seeing the beauty in them, it has helped me see that I am beautiful, even though I might not be our society's image of beauty. I hope this message can get through to my viewers and they can take the first steps towards self-love and self-acceptance.