Original Illustration, 'My Own Worst Enemy'

Original 2026 illustration / by Emma Mierop

Graphite collage on mixed media paper 

This is an original illustration complete with mat + cardboard backing. Signed + Dated. 

• Original: 14 x 17" pencil on paper with cut and collaged elements

• Limited Prints also available at: 9 x 12"

• Framing available upon request. (Champagne / light gold colored frame ) 

A while back, I met a bartender who had a beautifully drawn tattoo of a hand driving a dagger through another hand. When I asked about it, he told me it meant: “I am my own worst enemy.”

I loved the concept as a drawing prompt.—Not only for its visual impact, but because it reflects something deeply personal. Internal and external self-harm were significant struggles for me in my teens and twenties, which I eventually moved through after many months of outpatient therapy.

I shelved it for some time, I imagined how I might reinterpret that idea in my own way. I knew the only literal element I wanted to carry over was the dagger—the rest needed to come from other elements of my style and improvisation.

This drawing became a reflection of self-sabotage and self harm. The two heads can also represent a part of us that is both the enemy and also the voice that can prevent us from causing self harm. The intention behind the piece is not to glorify these feelings, but to act as a shard between them—creating a moment of awareness, or even resistance.