C.J. Conner’s “Masks”, the cover image for Volume 1, Issue 3 of The Sylvan Echo captures the transformations of an (adult) lifetime in a single picture of two women in similar dresses with similar hairstyles and earrings. The younger woman removes an elderly mask, the older woman a youthful one. The former could be taken as the memories of a bygone time hidden beneath wrinkled skin, the latter as potential wisdom (or dementia) underneath smooth skin. This is somewhat complicated by the skin on the women’s necks, wrists, and (where not hidden by gloves) hands matching the face under the mask.

Maturing, however, though often associated with certain milestones, has never been a linear process. Not one of us develops constantly and consistently along a rising line; we face setbacks, wrong turns, and regressions. Any thoroughgoing transformation will proceed in such a zigzag manner. That the particular steps in a transformation that this moment of unmasking cannot be determined precisely makes Conner’s art more representative of the whole process rather than a single point within it.

Also important here is how the eyes suggest that the two women pictured are separate individuals rather than aspects of the same idea or figure. Not only does each woman have a different eye color, but also each has one eye set in her mask and one in her face. Both these eyes work together, suggesting each individual’s continuity within transformation.

Whether such continuity is more an artifact of how we frame our world than of reality, C.J. Conner’s method of portraying it in “Masks” adds an intriguing layer to an already complicated image of transformation caught in time.