City: Honolulu

Brain Injury: Caused by an accident when a parking arm dropped down unexpectedly

Explanation of Mask: TBI is a multifaceted problem that is complicated and not easy to recognize, and deal with.  I used flowers with many different colors, layers, sizes, and shapes to describe my emotions.  The flowers look pretty and colorful, but they’re useless.

The red heart was me and white branch of leaves was my potentials and what I used to love doing in life.  However, the big flower is my constant headache that puts a stop to my growth and success.  The feathers represent my doctors, medications, therapies, etc that help me cope with the TBI.  While the brown feather is the negative side effects, the red feather shows positive outcomes.  However, there are limitations and new problems are born, which are represented by the white and red balls.  They cause new obstacles and even embarrassment.  The many flowers on the right side of the mask represent new medical problems after the TBI.  They don’t look ugly or serious at a glance, but it is very difficult to recognize or understand how to get rid of.   Finally, a large portion of the mask is blank because most of the time, I feel empty, lonely, and indecisive.