Caitlin Rantala is an expressionist painter, who explores girlhood, resilience, and authenticity through the lens of equine art.

Horses are mirrors. If you want to meet the most authentic version of yourself, hang out with one for an hour. They’ll reflect your intentions, honor your honesty, and call your bluff. If you listen carefully, these animals ask: “Are you brave enough to sit with what you feel and do have the courage to work through it?” 

When we are brave enough to sit with our emotions in their entirety, we find permission to explore our identities fully and in earnest. Then, and only then, can we be honest with ourselves and with those around us. I invite you to explore your humanity in its fullest–joy, strength, fear, cringe, anger, shame, hope. What is it about you that keeps the motion moving forward? Can you explore the parts of you that feel unnerving? That feel like too much? Or not enough? Are you policing yourself from joy over the sake of appearing “normal”? Do you zip up your anger into body bags because it didn’t obey?

Can you work with those emotions without breaking your own spirit? I hope you have the audacity to try.