Lonely Soldier, 2022, acrylic, 30 x 24 in. / 76.2 x 60.96 cm.

Lonely Soldier, Madelyn Stafford, 2022, acrylic, 30 x 24 in. / 76.2 x 60.96 cm.

A female soldier moves through a hellish red-and-yellow landscape, head held high, facing what’s ahead while figures rise from below trying to pull her down. It reflects the strength I had to perform to survive moving between two households, traveling back and forth between parents.