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Cayce Zavaglia's portraits offer a compelling, literally two-sided representation of what it means to be human.
On one side, a hyper-realistic face: precise, composed and considered, staring back at the viewer.
On the other, a knotted mess, torn and scarred in odd ways, yet still belonging to a single identity.
The binary comes as a result of the form: the age-old, time-consuming art of embroidery.
The subjects might at first appear to be painted, but a closer look reveals thousands of intricate stitches of wool.
Zavaglia's portraits are striking in their own right, but the American-born, Australian-raised artist admits it took her years to fully appreciate what was being created on the other side.
"As I was sitting there sewing away, sometimes I would think: 'Gosh, I wish I could just be more abstract.'
"When I discovered [the other side], I was so excited, because I don't think I would know how to set about making an abstracted portrait. But this was a by-product of making this meticulously sewn front image."
It might have been a happy accident, but Zavaglia believes the two sides of her work are revealing and representative of the complexity of being human.
"The reason the backside of the embroidery interests me is because I feel as humans, we each have two sides," she said.
"The side that we present to the world, and this other side that's hidden.
"As a mum raising four kids, I feel it's my job to not only look at this other side that's developing in my kids, but to help them turn their eyes onto it the other side. Yes, it's messy and knotted, but it's the source of strength.
"If I took one of my embroideries and totally hacked off the back because it's messy and ugly, the whole front would fall out. So it's a source of strength for the front."
Zavaglia lived in Australia until the age of 13, and says the country had a powerful impact on her career as an artist.
"I cherished my time growing up there. When I was at school, my mum bought me an embroidery kit of a sheep station," she said.
"It was when I created a sheep out of French knots that this kind of medium magic happened."
It's a piece the artist, whose work is now hung in galleries across the US, referred back to when she wanted to move away from painting.
"When I was pregnant with my daughter, I needed to switch from paint to something less toxic," she said.
"I used varnish and turpentine and I couldn't be around those things when I was pregnant.
"I thought back to this piece that I made growing up as a kid in Australia."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, contemporary-art, painting, australia, united-states