It’s that time of year.  Kids are planning who they’ll “be” for Halloween, adults are racking their brains to come up with costumes for themselves that are funny, clever, sexy, whatever the think they are or wish that they could be.  But the latest series by Canadian artist Lucky Jackson, I am the Hero of This Story, has got me thinking about the masks we all put on every day.

It’s funny how we all grow up thinking we can do anything, be anything, but slowly over time as we age and life beats us down, doubt creeps in.  Maybe I’m not smart enough, or pretty enough, or cool enough, or brave enough.  So instead of believing that we can be the hero of our story, we play dress-up each day, pretending to be who we are not, faking it, hoping to make it through.

Eventually though, either publicly or privately, whether when we’re young or at the end of our days, the facade will begin to crack.  We’ll come to realize that face we’ve been putting on all these years isn’t really who we are.  And hopefully, if we’re lucky, we’ll figure out who is truly hiding behind the mask.

These painted woodcut pieces by Lucky Jackson harken back to those days of dreaming of who we would become, but also look to what happens to who we become as we listen to the voices around us.  Want to see more of Lucky Jackson‘s work?  Please visit her website.

All images via the artist’s website.