Hallway Mirror (Who Do You See?) by Isabella Millman

This work is a self-portrait that explores the challenge of growing up and trying to understand who I am. As a kid, I felt confident in my identity. I knew what I liked and who I wanted to be. But as I’ve gotten older, that sense of clarity has faded. Hallway Mirror (Who Do You See?) shows this disconnect.

The younger version of me stands dressed up and smiling, painted in bright acrylics with clean lines and colour. Behind her is my current self, drawn in oil pastel, rough, uncertain, and out of place. The contrast shows how lost I sometimes feel now, and how clear things once seemed. The hallway mirror represents that space in between. A place of reflection, both literal and emotional, where I try to reconcile who I used to be with who I’m becoming.

This painting is about identity, memory, and the pressure to define ourselves, even when we’re still trying to figure it out.