DLP Week05: What Lies Beneath

The prompt this week for the Documented Life Project is: what lies beneath. The challenge is to use your "underpaper" to create a journal page. An underpaper is basically the sheet of paper you have under your journal to keep your work surface clean. The excess paint and ink can create stunning random designs on this sheet of paper.

Personally, I don't use underpaper. I have a craft mat and I usually clean that with a paper towel, so I used a piece of that to meet the challenge for this project. I simply stuck down one of my inked up paper towels on the journal page, which created a really cool texture.

On top of this I added some bright green stenciling, some washi tape and some drywall tape for additional texture. The main element of my composition is the image of a mask, which I printed from the Internet, doodled on it and stamped my quote by Oscar Wilde.

"Give a man a mask and he will show his true face"

I think this means that anonymity gives people the courage to behave without limitations or having to conform to social norms, showing their true colours and say what they really think, sometimes hurting other people in the process. It's rarely a good thing, unfortunately. That's exactly why there are so many trolls on the Internet. If they were to show their own face and name, they wouldn't have the courage to behave the way they do. They hide behind their masks, but the masks actually reveal what lies beneath.