The series, Dificuldades da Língua Portuguêsa, is a collection of seven drawings that depict my difficulties in living in Brazil for 6 months as a foreigner.  I have found that while learning a new language and culture is exciting, it is also exhausting, causing me to feel suffocated, reduced to the vocabulary of a child, and, at times, inhuman.  This series portrays these emotions by showing myself wearing seven childlike, animal masks of the different species depicted on Brazilian currency.   The drawings are made on pages from a book I found abroad, the title of which I have also used for the artwork.  These 6 months abroad have been all about creating “necessary fictions” for the people around me and for myself.  These fictions have not only shaped my experiences as a foreigner, but they also continue to shape my perceptions as I am now home.

2011, 19″ x 26″, colored pencil, book pages