These 5 drawings are self portraits I have been working on over the last few years. They have all been completed in graphite and or charcoal. I began the first one in 2017 and finished the last in 2020. Early on sometime during the planning stages of the second drawing I began to observe some direction for what I was creating and a theme emerged of where I wanted to go with them which I titled “Reflections Beyond My Control”. For me each portrait became a meditation on elements of who I am today through the experience of regular exposure to certain societal norms paired with my psychological response to these “norms”. I believe this relationship over time has resulted in ways of thinking and being that have become innate to my person without my conscious awareness. Subsequently I am now in many ways simply living and behaving as a reflection of the unchallenged “norms” that have always surrounded me.