The Arm Wound Piece
Medium:
Up-cycled Fabric, Nail Polish, Beads, Gel Nail Set, Thread, & Padding
Dimensions:
~16" x 5" x 4.5"
Artwork for Sale:
Yes
Year Completed:
2026
Description:
The Arm Wound explores the impulse to overshare as both a coping mechanism and a form of self-exposure. The piece comes from a place of wanting to be understood—of needing someone to witness what has been carried—but also questioning how much of that needs to be given away, and to whom.
For many people who have experienced trauma, oversharing can become a way to process. When something overwhelming isn’t fully metabolized internally, it spills outward. Speaking it, repeating it, offering it up—these can feel like ways to make sense of what happened, or to prove that it was real. It can also be a way of trying to control the narrative: if I tell it first, if I say everything, maybe I can shape how it’s received. But in doing so, there’s a risk of reopening the wound over and over again, placing something deeply personal into spaces that aren’t always equipped to hold it.
This piece makes that tension physical. The arm is constructed in layers that can be lifted and handled—skin, muscle, veins—each one carefully built over months through fabric, embroidery, painting, beading, and stitching. The softness of the exterior contrasts with what’s inside, inviting touch while also exposing vulnerability. The first layer is an intro to the mindset of traumas--a rewritten journal entry, transferred onto tulle using nail polish. It acts as both evidence and artifact: a record of trauma dumping, but also something fragile, and intentionally preserved.
The act of peeling back the layers mirrors the act of oversharing itself. Viewers are given permission to look deeper, to read, to engage—but that access is deliberate, not automatic. It asks: what does it mean to reveal something piece by piece? When does sharing become too much, and who gets to decide that?
As well, the inclusion of the nails adds another layer of personal history. The arm itself is threaded together with different pieces of fabric in order to harken to past wounds. The final item in the piece, is a bracelet--made during a therapy session--which incorporates the words "healing" as a reminder that healing does not always look how we may think it will, it is not linear, and it is a complicated form of learning and growth. Time, care, and identity shaped in the hope of being valued. In this context, they become part of the wound itself, tied to a pattern of overextending and seeking recognition through effort and exposure.
The Arm Wound ultimately sits in the space between visibility and protection. It acknowledges the desire to be seen—not as a victim, but as someone actively moving through and beyond what they’ve experienced. At the same time, it questions the cost of constant openness. Not everything has to be offered up to be valid. Not every wound needs to be reopened to prove that it exists.
