Emily Su, 2025
Acrylic paint on canvas
36×24 in.
The first painting in The Visitors series explores childhood trauma through the lens of imagination and innocence lost. A young girl sits indifferently among her “monsters”, playful yet unsettling figures disguised as bunnies. Their cheerful expressions contrast her detachment, embodying the dual nature of imaginary friends: both protectors and products of fear. By distorting the innocence of childhood symbols into eerie forms, the work exposes how trauma can corrupt what is meant to comfort. The piece captures the uneasy coexistence between joy and dread, showing how a child’s mind transforms terror into companionship, and imagination into survival.
Emily Su, 2025
Acrylic paint on canvas
36×24 in.
The first painting in The Visitors series explores childhood trauma through the lens of imagination and innocence lost. A young girl sits indifferently among her “monsters”, playful yet unsettling figures disguised as bunnies. Their cheerful expressions contrast her detachment, embodying the dual nature of imaginary friends: both protectors and products of fear. By distorting the innocence of childhood symbols into eerie forms, the work exposes how trauma can corrupt what is meant to comfort. The piece captures the uneasy coexistence between joy and dread, showing how a child’s mind transforms terror into companionship, and imagination into survival.