2026 · 12 x 12 x 1 inches · Acrylic on canvas
There comes a time when the smile wasn’t this wide.
But slowly—sometimes unknowingly, sometimes knowingly—it keeps growing, becoming wider as the pain sinks in.
No one sees through it. It is taken as real.
The smile does what it is meant to—it becomes a mask of strength.
It may come from denial, from avoiding what needs to be faced.
It may be an internal mechanism of survival.
Or simply a way to show a version of strength that feels unbreakable.
But the danger lies in how far it stretches.
There comes a point where even the moments that should hold a real smile begin to feel the same.
It becomes important, then, to recognise the pain.
To remove the mask.
To acknowledge it—not necessarily in front of others, but at least within oneself, or with those who truly understand.
Because a smile, when it keeps widening beyond truth, can slowly take away the ability to feel it at all.