Raquel Lopes

"There Is No Room for Me Right Now & Yet There Is Only Room for Me; For I Must Heal"

This artwork is a re-discovery of myself. Researching self-development, healing from trauma, and beginning to show up more for myself as apposed to pleasing others at the cost of my own inner connectivity with myself. This piece was freedom, freedom to paint where I am at this moment, loving embracing portraiture drawing and painting, while still enjoying expressing big gestures. Part of it too was acceptance, that I'm not fully there yet and that, that's okay, it's a journey and it's worth living. While I love working with oil paints I chose acrylic paints for this series because after much exploration, it was clear that spontaneity in my painting and creating with intuition was an important part of my process. The immediacy of acrylics allowed for the most authentic expression of my feelings in that moment and best captured the gestures.