Raised to Endure, Not to Speak by Iyanuoluwa Babalola

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Dimensions: 66.04 x 71.12 cm

Year: 2026

Price: $500.00 USD

Status: available

Raised to Endure, Not to Speak explores how silence is often learned before it becomes a choice. The work is rooted in my experience of being too silent enduring hurt from friends and family without expressing how their actions affected me, and often placing other people’s feelings before my own. Even as a child, I sometimes hesitated to ask for what I needed because I feared becoming a burden. I created this piece to question the belief that strength is measured by how much pain we can silently endure. The repeated figures represent how patterns of silence and endurance can become subconscious behaviours that we pass on to those we nurture. Children observe how we handle pain, conflict, and vulnerability, and may learn to repeat those same patterns. Rather than glorifying endurance, I want the audience to see that speaking about what hurts us does not necessarily make us weak, difficult, or ungrateful. Sometimes, acknowledging what we feel is the first step toward understanding ourselves and breaking patterns that should not be passed on. The work encourages viewers to reflect on the silence they have accepted and what they may unknowingly be teaching the next generation. And finally, the work asks: “What if true strength begins the moment we choose to speak?”