A Complicated Freedom

2026
oil on used military tentage,  stretched over standard pineframed canvas
60 x 90 cm

This haircut feels different.

The barber’s cape settles around his shoulders, the chair creaks back, and the familiar question lands lightly. “What are we doing today?” An ordinary question: harmless, routine.

For years, the answer was simple. The Army Dress Manual decided for him: short, neat, compliant. His reflection was predictable. There was comfort in that predictability, in knowing his image, his identity, was defined by his service.

He studies himself in the mirror, feeling the thrill of possibility. He could change it, let it grow, try something new. Step into a version of himself not defined by rank or regulation. The thought is equally exciting and unsettling. Freedom is more complicated than he expected.

Another instinct pulls at him — a powerful urge to remain the same. The familiar cut feels safe, like muscle memory. It belongs to the person he knows how to be.

He sits suspended between those impulses, and this small decision no longer feels small. In this chair, with scissors poised and no rule book to guide him, he understands that he is shaping more than hair — he is defining himself anew.