The Story
I always wish I could press a pause button, right at the moment
someone lets a word or a voice escape, and just—stop it there.
What I want to freeze is the profile. The side of a face turned
toward wherever it’s heading.
I love that angle, that particular warmth, of words being sent forward.
But when I actually talk to someone, we’re facing each other.
And that face, facing mine, grows a little careful—reading my
mood, my mind.
Whatever words come to me in that moment end up a little filtered.
It’d be nice to be freer than that.
Is that word meant for the person standing in front of you?
Or is it meant for someone further away—someone you can’t see?
The Making, Behind a Voice Waiting to Be Seen
I tried to sculpt a profile out of clay, and somehow it turned
into something like a spirit out of a picture book.
I wanted to keep this spirit inside an oval world—a shape that’s
neither round nor square, a gentle vessel that seems to hold
a story softly within it.
Once I fused it onto the oval cardboard, I found myself wanting
to write about this voice in a profile, after all.
Visual Story Details
Subject: A narrative artwork set against a green background, featuring
white Latin-style calligraphy and a clay relief profile resembling a
spirit—exploring the freedom of a voice.
Mood: The quiet fatigue of worrying about others’ perceptions, paired
with introspection. Mysterious, yet warm.
Theme: The contrast between the caution born from facing someone
directly, and the freedom found in a profile turned away. A question
of how far, and to whom, one’s true words want to travel.
Artist: Kazue Shima (Visual Story Artist)
