Seeing Myself Writing
{Though our stories are often written, our platform welcomes stories told in other ways. We invite submissions of Spoken Word poetry or performance art, dance or music, and visual art as well. We only ask that if it's not a literary submission, that you offer some written contextualization of the piece. }
"Invisible Marionette" by Janice Li
Invisible Marionette: Medium--Colored Pencil
Invisible Marionette discusses power and control from invisible external influences. A marionette is a puppet worked from above by strings attached to its limbs. In a puppet show, the hand controlling the puppet is concealed.
The process of making art involves building layers of colors on top of each other, but ironically, I felt that while creating art, I was peeling off the layers of tight-lipped smiles and swatches of fragile confidence that these external forces have plastered on me, by making the invisible, visible. I’ve learned that just like a shadow, these forces will never go away. But I can choose whether I let them control me and art empowers me with that choice.
This piece encourages me to regain control of my happiness. It reveals my authentic self; it helps me remember who I was before these invisible forces got its hands on me, controlling me and many others like an Invisible Marionette.
