“Brainwash” by Kiara Santos

A call to action. To see if you have been picked piece by piece, chipped away by those who seek to judge or impose misconceptions on you. What do you do? What emotion do these interactions stir inside of you?

The artist, Kiara Santos, invites you to recall a time when someone told you about yourself-a time someone called you out on a character flaw you thought the world was blind to. The encounter could seem as if they had a flashlight drawn only to highlight your flaws. Did my mask fade? How could they see? See the part of me that I'm most ashamed of? Santos expresses the overwhelming emotions she experienced when this happened to her. The first emotion being anger. Angry because she felt forced to acknowledge a part of herself that she was too embarrassed to admit. She has expressed that growing up she was taught to believe that this world is filled with evil and to survive she must live by Biblical standards. Well, she did indeed want to "survive", and therefore she did. She followed all of the rules, until they were a mirrored reflection of herself. She adopted a belief to feel accepted because of fear of rejection. Once all anger faded away, she spent time reflecting and became reborn. With this, she maintained this realization: your fear to disappoint, your fear to fail, and your fear of rejection will paralyze you. Be you. Do you and open yourself up to the goodness in you.