Mustapha the Mighty Mime symbolizes a liberation from any scars that bullying might have left on one’s identity growing up.
This is the 4th painting in my latest series titled Boogeyman.
About BOOGEYMAN
Boogeyman is an art project I started working on in early 2022. It consists of 20 digital paintings, all created around the main theme of recovery. Recovery in this context refers to the process of rediscovering one’s true self after a long period of breakdown, trauma or downturn. It can also refer to a process of societal restoration following a lengthy period of collective trauma such as slavery, war crimes or self-destructive political regimes.
Each subject painted in the Boogeyman series symbolizes an environmental or psychological factor that might have a role in causing traumatic experiences to an individual growing up.
As such, every Boogeyman painting overall symbolizes liberation from such traumatic experiences having to do with anything from parenting, education, social interactions to sexual orientation or gender identity.
I started Boogeyman after experiencing firsthand that one has to come to terms with one’s past before being able to cherish any form of liberty. And there’s only one way todo that: dialogue; either with oneself or the others. As such, I consider Boogeyman NOT an attempt to destroy the monster. It’s an attempt to accept and rise above it.
