“I’ve Seen Enough” is a traditional piece made with color pencils, pen, and ink. The title, “I’ve Seen Enough” comes from my personal perspective on how I’ve recently been viewing my own life. Depression sucks. Everybody knows that. Depression also sucks when you’re an artist, because it gives you a sense of hopelessness, a sense of loss and insignificance. This is something I’ve been dealing with a lot over the recent months, hence why I haven’t been producing art, let alone posting anywhere actively.
The octopus in this piece, who looks similar to Henry from “Treasured Toys,” is now known as “Depressed Michael.” Michael was originally going to be Henry. I felt really bad ruining Henry’s innocent, childlike personality I had originally established in Treasured Toys. So, the choice was made. Henry now has a really depressed brother named Michael.
I chose an octopus for this piece because I wanted something with lots of arms. I wanted to make multiple arms going in different directions. The intention was to provoke the feeling of disarray and chaos. The use of multiple arms also allowed for key elements, such as one eye being held and discarded, one eye actively being pulled out, and the ice cream scooper. The title, “I’ve Seen Enough” also plays on the phrase, “Rip my eyes out” to a much more literal degree rather than a stressful metaphor. The action of Michael ripping his eyes out represents the agonizing pain of wanting a solution, but taking the less rational approach to fixing said problems due to an overwhelming amount of negative emotions.
