Misunderstood
Misunderstood by Megan Stewart | Watercolor
I've spent most of my life being misread by people who never took the time to look closer, to get to know me. I always felt relegated to the sidelines for one reason or another. I’m rude. I’m mean. I’m aggressive. In reality, I have a blank expression, I’m blunt, and I don’t take shit.
This is one of the reasons I’m so drawn to sharks, as they get the same treatment. They move through their own space, existing exactly as nature intended, and people have already made up their minds before the shark ever does a thing.
Misunderstood started as a study in contrast. The stillness of open water, the weight of a shadow, and a creature that exists exactly as it's supposed to. The shark isn't hunting in this painting. It's just there. Moving through its own space.
Some things don't need to be fixed or softened to be worthy of the water they swim in. This one's for every person who's been read wrong before they ever opened their mouth.
Megan Stewart is a writer and budding visual artist whose work is raw, visceral, and uninterested in looking away. Storytelling, in any form, has always been the thing she can't walk away from. Megan is also the co-founder of Helia Lit, because apparently one creative obsession was never going to be enough. When she isn't writing, she's probably watching Formula 1 and making it everyone's problem.
