Playing the Part

This collection of work is based on the study of DBT (Dialectal Behavior Therapy), which is a type of therapy used for people who experience emotions more intensely than the average person. As a teenager I did some practice in DBT. I worked on separating my emotions into parts, each part was very personal to me. In my Parts I studied myself and the actions attached to my emotions, otherwise known as a behavior. I would draw my Parts as people and creatures in a home setting, similar to the scenes displayed in this series.

The more we understand our behaviors we can find patterns and cycles in our everyday life. These behaviors can be isolating, eating (or not), smoking, dissociating, crying and many more. Everyone has behaviors, though it can be difficult to recognize them, a behavior is essentially a reaction to immediate emotions. In Playing the Part I put my Parts in their behavioral settings, hoping for viewers to find a familiarity in the scenes.