Exactly Enough - 36x24

For the sensitive souls, the ones whose feelings were bigger than the hands that held them. You were never too much. You were always, exactly enough. 

Details: Acrylic, graphite, chalk pastel, confetti, cardboard, ink on 1.5" deep canvas. Finished with matte varnish and framed in black float frame.

INSPIRATION:

Sensitive Girl didn’t know she was sensitive. What she knew was that feeling deeply was woven into her being. It wasn’t a quality she developed, it simply just existed. 

She understood feelings without the need for explanation and had the uncanny ability to know when something was wrong upon walking into a room. Sensitive Girl cried when they chopped down her favourite willow tree on the corner of Albert and McNabb and felt badly when she released a house spider into the cold temperatures of winter.

Harsh tones and brush offs cut deeply, but when Sensitive Girl would push back to express her hurt she’d curtly be told “don’t be so sensitive!” or “get a thicker skin!”. 

She learned to believe her feelings were too much. When she felt angry, no matter how loud and intensely rage pulsed through her, nobody really seemed to hear her. Eventually she became well practiced at converting anger into sadness. And that quickly transformed to loneliness.

Sensitive Girl learned it was easier to find solace in solitude than to feel alienated in a crowd. But in time, as a result of a few lucky connections, she learned to discern what nourishing company felt like and in doing so, returned to presence in her body. 

The more she validated and tended to her own experience, the less trapped she felt by her feelings. Sensitive Girl learned to turn martyrdom into quiet power, her sensitivity creating an energetic pathway of connection few others could establish with ease.

Now, Sensitive Girl knows she’s not too much. She’s exactly enough.

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