PERSONA

A journey through masks layers and transformations

The word persona comes from Latin: per meaning “through” and sona meaning “sound.” It referred to the theatrical mask — not to hide, but to let the voice carry through.
In this work, the persona is not a disguise, but a layered face shaped by experience, through which something deeper speaks.

In this exhibition, I take you through a series of faces — sometimes primal, sometimes playful, sometimes dark — based on hand-carved linocuts that I later reworked digitally. What began as a spontaneous creative release grew into a collection of characters that symbolize inner forces, moods, and archetypes.

I divided the narrative into five chapters:

  • Dramatis Personae

    The birth of the mask
    Return to handwork — carving, printing.
    The first faces emerge, raw and unfiltered, without plan or theory.
    A direct expression of being.

  • Persona Obscura

    The descent into darkness
    Chaos, depression, grief.
    Color becomes a portal into shadow.
    Masks distort, multiply, and fracture.
    The dark night of the soul.

  • Persona Animata

    The awakening within shadow
    Darkness is still present, but life starts to pulse through it.
    Masks develop character and individuality.
    Creation becomes a way of reclaiming power.
    Playfulness flickers inside the broken lines.

  • Persona Forma

    The dance of structure and play
    Joy returns — not naïve, but earned.
    Color and form move rhythmically.
    Graphic clarity strengthens.
    The work breathes with rhythm, not heaviness.

  • Persona Lucida

    The breath of release
    A phase of lightness, but not of forgetting.
    The experiences remain, woven into the structure.
    The masks become translucent.
    There is acceptance, humility, and a new kind of freedom.