Artist: Janice Sorensen
Shadow 8, 2004
Watercolor on paper
10 3/4” x 15 1/4”

This watercolor image is from a series of 13 self-portraits done over a 26-year period. These images, which I refer to as Shadows, are a visual documentation of my struggle and delight with mania and depression. Each piece represents a different part of myself and reflects the emotional place and time in which it was rendered.

This image, Shadow 8, references the flat stability I experience with medication. It’s like looking through the bars of my own life. As an artist this flatness is almost unbearable. As a parent it feels like my only option.