‘Anxiety Est. 03’ explores childhood trauma through the lens of Farfán’s signature cartoon- cubism approach, poignantly yet playfully bringing to life the emotions and experiences that reshaped his adolescence upon arriving in America in 2003. Farfán’s parents did not inform him about the family’s relocation plans: in fact, the animation-obsessed seven-year-old boarded their plane believing he was en route to a Disney World vacation. While the aircraft briefly touched down in Miami, the Farfáns continued on to Chicago, where Sergio struggled to adjust both to his new surroundings and to the absence of his extended Peruvian family — a struggle that manifested as crippling anxiety. “I remember being in Peru and not having any anxiety. I was a normal, happy kid,” Farfán says. “But flying from Peru to Florida and then from Florida to Chicago, my heart started racing and I was nauseous. I was shaking and sweating. It was not until my freshman year in high school that I was diagnosed with anxiety, and that led me to art therapy. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to deal with my anxiety disorder and using art as a form of meditation.” Farfán credits art therapy — a technique that utilizes creative expression as a means to address a patient’s negative thoughts, emotions and behaviors — for giving him the tools necessary to bring a project like ‘Anxiety Est. 03’ to fruition. “Art therapy didn’t just teach me how to draw, but also to draw whatever I felt, and to put meaning into it,” he explains. “‘Anxiety Est. 03’ processes what I felt coming from Peru to the U.S. — what anxiety did to me, and how I dealt with it. Each painting tells stories about coming to America: what immigrants experience to come here, and what life is like when we get here.”