'BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER'

This incredibly beautiful face of my friend Emily is so special to me. I asked to paint her as I knew she hated photos I thought I could interview her on society's expectations of women, thinking that her hate of photos stemmed from society's potent beauty standards. Yet sitting with her I found it comes from her ethnicity. The ignorance I felt - having not thought that the brutality of Asian hate across the globe could make someone in my life I love and find so beautiful inside out, want to hide themselves from the world. This portrait is for her and anyone who feels the same - I hoped to show her the beauty I see in her for being simply human - we are one in the same.