City: Albuquerque

Brain Injury: Pedestrian Accident – Germany 1976

Explanation of Mask: My blue on the bottom is water – emotions that you can drown in with self-pity.  Photography looks into your eye because you have to let people into your head – your personal story is no longer personal.  Circuits represent broken memory and processing that is hard to see but is still there.  Fan shows how easy it is to be overheated trying to process thoughts and get frustrated a lot.  Mouth has glitter to honor how hard it is to tell your story, but the topic you are always teaching others about how a brain injury has affected you.  Hands together symbolize team building as your brain learns to reconnect with itself over time.  This is what neuroplasticity means.  The hands also represent the importance of connecting with others – especially with others who understand your condition.  The acorn is a symbol of the transformation as it must die to itself to become an oak tree.  This happens in soil with fertilizer.  So the doo-doo that happened to me that altered my life also has transformed me.  I can feel sorry that I am very cracked or I can see myself as an oak tree in the making.