Out Of My Depth
Out Of My Depth by Erika Willis | Linoleum and Block Printing Ink
The whole point is that the piece feels wrong on purpose. The octopus, the swirling lines, the backwards text, they don’t logically belong together, but they still create one truth: kindness feels foreign now.
The words are reversed because kindness itself feels reversed in the world. You have to stop, flip it, and work to read it, the same way you have to work to show softness in a culture that rewards hardness. Nothing fits neatly, but everything plays its part in showing how strange and alien kindness has become.
Erika Willis grew up without a voice, in a home where expression wasn’t safe and silence was the only way to survive. Art became the place where she slowly began to heal, letting the parts of her shaped by neglect, abuse, and trauma finally be seen with gentleness. Creating is how she reclaims herself, but it’s also how she honors others who were silenced or made small in their own lives. Her work speaks for the version of herself who couldn’t speak, and for anyone still trying to find their way back to their own voice.
