The Dressing Room

Original painting by Sana El Khamlichi.

Technique: Acrylic on cotton canvas.
Dimensions: 81 x 60 cm.
Year: 2025.

Unique work, hand painted and signed by myself.

Artistic description:

There is always one detail that captures me when I paint, a point that halts or holds me back for days. For this piece, it was the reflection. From the very beginning, my idea was clear; I knew exactly what I wanted to depict. Yet the reflection could not convey the emotion I sought to express.

I see this work on three levels: the woman, her reflection, and the mirror itself. Here, reality does not lie in the idealized figure on the left, but in the reflection on the right. That is precisely why I struggled so much to paint it: I wanted to highlight the gap between the projected image and the inner self, to emphasize the rift between two women who are, in truth, one and the same. One appears confident, self-assured, while the other emerges more fragile, almost withdrawn into herself.

And then there is the mirror, surrounded by words. They echo the judgments received and internalized: the fear of being too much, not enough, of feeling too intensely, or on the contrary of seeming empty, cold, distant, or superficial.

The dressing room embodies this idea perfectly for me. It is as if she is preparing to play a role: her own. Everything revolves around appearance: the perfume, the pearls, the makeup, several lipsticks, because she does not know which one to apply, as though trying to mask her inner reality, or rather, her vulnerability.