What would you say if I asked you to bare your soul on your face for all to see? What if I asked you to unveil all those fears and doubts, those past wounds pushed down as deep as the scars that adorn them, just wrench them out of your soul?
That’s exactly what I asked 24 St. Edward’s students to do. Complete anonymity. Complete truth. What had started off as an English assignment for class quickly grew into a soul-baring project that reached out to two dozen individuals.
After seeing an art therapy program where soldiers were asked to create a mask that portrayed their PTSD, I recognized the potential for a project like this at St. Edward’s. In the whirlwind of growing up, we easily lose sight of ourselves and even more of others. We forget that there are reasons for everything, reasons for why people act that way, reasons for why do what they do. It’s easy to label someone gifted or hopeless, rude or kind, when you don’t know what demons they face everyday. That’s where the masks come in.
Masks, by their very conception, were intended for deception. People use them to hide, to conceal their face and, consequently, their humanity. These masks don’t do that. These masks turn themselves inside out, covering up the facade we usually wear around this world and replacing it with an honest reflection of internal struggle. When so many people from so many different walks of life are brought together, it can be incredible, if only we learn to see the humanity in each one of us. The commonality of personal struggle is one that connects us all, one that the Inside Out Mask Project works to bring out. It asks students to consider whatever personal issue they are facing in life right now and project their feelings about it onto the mask. They were also asked to write something, anything on the back to explain what they depicted. The response was enlightening, soul baring and true.
Within hours of handing them out and explaining the idea, I was already receiving a few masks at my doorstep. Over the next few days, they would trickle into my makeshift mailbox on my door until finally the collection grew to over 20 masks. Many students told me how excited they were about it. A few told me how they needed something like this. One told me it was perfect timing. I was even more shocked when some people approached me asking if they could be apart of it and I had to make more and more copies. The whole community was abuzz with excitement and it only empowered me to keep it going.
Finally, it came time to photocopy and type up all of the submissions.The words anxiety, depression and panic were a common occurrence. Masks that depicted dead eyes, broken hearts, fearful souls. Be they artistic masterpieces or not, they all had some greater meaning and an ultimate truth to them. I looked at these masks and I saw the people I lived with in my dorm, the students I attended class with, the friends I hang out with, and that’s how I want people to see them. See these anonymous conflicts and know that it could be anyone and it is in everyone.
The purpose of the Inside Out Mask Project capitalizes on vulnerability to visually illustrate some of the personal battles young adults fight behind closed door. If anything, I hope people come away with this with a greater understanding that everyone is facing something in life right now so be kind, be understanding.
Check out the Inside Out Masks Project here on page 40!
