Shame Spiral
2025.
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: L42cm xW30cm
There was a time I saw negative emotions as flaws. As stains on the canvas of my perfect selfhood. Shame, especially, felt like a threat something to hide, to silence, to outrun.
This piece is me challenging myself to see my emotions as not enemies but friends, messengers from me to me.
Signals from my body, my awareness, my deeper self. Shame wasn’t trying to destroy me it was trying to speak so I got curious.
And when I finally looked, it did not appear monstrous.
Now I can like my shame. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s mine. It belongs to me, and I belong to it. It is part of my wholeness, not a fracture.
I wanted this painting to invoke introspection, concealment, and revelation.
It is the visual language of emotional alchemy: shame turned into sparkle, silence turned into selfhood.
Esther Akello 