Sign off

"When I grow up, I want to be a painter." I always knew that, and I never changed my mind. Art has surrounded me for as long as I can remember. Museums, books, exhibitions—my world was filled with masterpieces that shaped my understanding of beauty, composition, and storytelling.

Yet, as a child, I believed that being an artist wasn’t an option for me. I had never heard the name of a female artist, never seen a painting signed by a woman. And so, I assumed they simply didn’t exist.

"Maybe I could be the first," I thought.

Later, of course, I learned the truth. Women had always been there—painting, sculpting, creating—but history had erased them. Their names, their stories, their art had been overshadowed, reduced to footnotes, or defined by their personal lives rather than their talent.

That absence shaped me. It shaped the way I saw myself and my place in the world of art. And it is that absence that Sign off reflects. In this photograph, I am surrounded by the works that influenced me most—portraits that have been part of my journey. And yet, none of them were created by women. Because for most of my life, I didn’t know their names.

Sign off is more than an image—it’s a statement. A reminder of the voices that were silenced and the ones reclaiming their space today.