"The Keeper of the Heartbeat reimagines an old photograph of a Japanese figure adorned in traditional garments, transformed through digital collage. I overlay the image with organic patterns, flowers, masks, and symbols that seem to float—creating a bridge between past and present.
The figure’s face is almost entirely covered, as if they were an ethereal being, a distant memory taking shape: an ambiguous presence that evokes questions and infuses the piece with a sense of fantasy. The heart they hold is an ancestral flame, a symbol of life pulsing through the centuries. Around them, ghosts, demons, and masks emerge—manifestations of the darker aspects we carry and often hide. For me, giving them space is an act of resistance and healing, a way to say that these shadows are part of us and deserve to be seen.
This piece invites reflection on forgotten stories, on the weight of what remains unspoken, and seeks to give life back to those memories through an explosion of color, texture, and contrast—turning the static into something alive and beating."