This painting was pretty much my passion project for an entire week. I locked myself in a room with just my paints and I and it created an accelerated learning environment. I personally believe this is one of the most successful pieces of work I have ever produced. I began this painting with some large unplanned sketches of what could be considered a gendered body and worked around this as the basis for the premise. It eventually evolved into a coalition of two beings, one being pulled or pushing itself away from the other. The first face began to take shape when I noticed it looked almost android-like, I wanted to lean in to this as I related to this idea of being on ‘auto-pilot’ when in hostile situations. The first figure has been blasted between the eyes with spray paint creating the impression of what most would assume is a bullet hole, I understand that this is quite dark in theme but it felt appropriate to address the darker side of shedding an old skin and some of the obstacles one might face such as suicidal thoughts – I like the fact that spray paint used was almost a neon pink, oftentimes seen as a very gendered colour, this character is literally bleeding pink. In the completed painting I also created another area of dripping spray paint along the lower abdomen, mimicking the scar I have from getting my appendix removed, this brought me close to the painting as it feels like a personal narrative to me and shares my scars. The second figure is unusual in its form as it’s slowly becoming more recognisable as a human body, I feel like the combination of these two figure creates something transitional between the two. I knew instantly when this painting was done that it was going to have to be featured in my exhibition work as I put my entire heart and soul into the production of this and I feel like I really hit the bullseye of what I have been aiming for since I began the exploration of gender within my artwork.