20260418-015_web_remember_remorse
Remember Remorse
Mary Uehara
Digital (Ibis Paint X & Procreate)
20260418-014_web_your_best_suit
Your Best Suit
Mary Uehara
Digital, 3000 x 4243 px (Ibis Paint X & Procreate)
Your Best Suit continues my exploration of grief, focusing on depression. The white-haired protagonist stands in a distorted bathroom, tying a noose-tie in funeral attire. Using a distorted lens, I warped the perspective to create physical imbalance. I tried to maintain his likeness while also displaying a slow passage of time with his longer hair and overgrown black roots. The harsh overhead lighting creates a “halo” effect, making him the focal point in a cramped space filled with extra mirrors to remove negative space. The mold represents the nature of depression.
20260418-013_web_fault
Fault
Mary Uehara
Digital, 3069 x 4700 px (Ibis Paint X & Procreate)
The name “Fault” has a double meaning, both the cause of an earthquake and when blame is placed. Since my character is usually more cool and collected, I exaggerated his face, particularly his eyes which immediately pop out. By making his head extremely big relative to his body, his expression looks more intense. The checkers not only provided a grid but also to imply a game of chess, a strategic ‘life or death’ battle, similar to how grief puts individuals at odds with themselves and those closest to them.
20260418-012_web_denial_river
Denial River
Mary Uehara
Digital (Ibis Paint X & Procreate)
20260423-072_web_in_perspectie
In Perspective
Kasie Siegmund
Oil pastel, 12 x 12 in.
This self-portrait inhabits the haunting composition of Tom Lea’s “2000 Yard Stare,” reimagining shell-shock through the lens of displacement. By placing myself within the frame, I interrogate the role of the bystander, using radical empathy to bridge the distance between my reality and a refugee’s exhaustion.
Set against my birthplace, Mauna Kea, the piece personalizes the tragedy. Seeing my own home as a ruined landscape forces a confrontation with the “luck of geography.” The unblinking gaze serves as a meditation on shared humanity, asking viewers to look at suffering without turning away.