This self-portrait captures a rare moment where I felt fully myself — not performing, not pushing — just present. For a long time, I had been moving through cycles of pressure, silence, and emotional block. This painting marked a quiet rupture in that loop. There’s no dramatic gesture here, no overt emotion — just me, returning to my own skin. The softness is deliberate. I wanted to paint the feeling of pausing, of landing in myself after being scattered. It’s a portrait of stillness with weight behind it. In many ways, it’s about detaching — not from life, but from the noise that disconnects us from our essence. Painting this wasn’t about reactivating ambition — it was about remembering who I am, beneath it all.