Self Harm
The lonely struggle – November 2022
Sculpture by Thorbjorn Barone
Scale 90 mm
In my private collection
I fell in love with this figure the moment I saw her in the sculpting category at World Model Expo 2022. I imediately felt the need to paint it and try to enhance the solemn aspect of the piece.
I wanted to evoque the loneliness, the shame and guilt of self harm and depression, but at the same time I wanted to be delicate portraying such a triggering topic.
The Darkness
I was convinced using a purely black background would give an impression of solitude and and abandonment. I wanted the background to be as dark as possible to give it a feeling similar to “the upside down” from stranger things.
I used Musou Black paint to avoid any light reflections and just added some watery reflections on the floor to emulate that space.
I also started with a warmer skintone, but radically changed it to ambient her in colder tones
The arms
With the arms paintedalso in black I wanted to transmit the feeling that the figure is, at the same time, entering and leaving the darkness surrounding her.
She is using the external pain to feel relieved from all the internal pain she is suffering, thus some of the darkness is leaving her body. At the same time, by enabling self harm, she is further isolating in a deep space of guilt and solitude.
