It makes me feel vulnerable to document my psoriasis through photography, and drawing it as a multiplicity of representations has enabled me to add layers of meaning.
Covering the affected patches of skin with clay also provides visual uniformity and turns skin into landscape. It makes skin whole again, rather than divided between healthy/unhealthy, smooth/rough.
I observe the leaves on plants, so many are imperfect. I think the unity with the natural world and start questioning beauty and ugliness.
Through the character of Surpanakha in The Liberation of Sita, Volga writes:
I have been able to find happiness in trying to understand the very meaning of beauty. […] I struggled a lot to grasp that there is no difference between beauty and ugliness in nature. […] I, who hated everything, including myself, began to love everything including myself. […] the effort I made to achieve all this was extraordinary.
During my walks, I observe skin in the natural world. The bark of pine trees peel off like my psoriasis patches, the man-made scorings reveal flesh, and it oozes.
THE SKIN PROJECT 