Justina Blakeney

makes one person feel good about themselves or one person finds it beautiful, that's a bonus because I'm doing it for myself anyway and it feels beautiful to me.

And it's a joy to watch myself love my paintings more the more I paint.

And it's not about, it's no longer mine once I put the art in the gallery, right?

It's for everyone and for myself.

And I hope people can experience my work and make, you know, it can make people feel something.

But it's also okay if people don't like my work.

You know, it doesn't have to be good for everyone.

I don't like everyone else's work.

It's a good point.

There's an I don't know element to this for sure.

But I want to say something about self-expression and expressions on the faces and about how

what that means when you read someone's expression and you feel it and it touches you.

And so for me, drawing, painting, illustrating faces creates an immediate connection.

You know, like on magazine covers, they always try to have the models on the covers looking at the camera because when you look at the magazine cover, she's looking back at you.

And there is something very powerful about that gaze and about that connection point.

And so for me, trying to capture that in my art is just something very compelling.

And I really like hearing people talk about, oh, it looks like she's feeling this or thinking this.

And, you know, it's yours.

It's so personal to you.

That is what it is for you.