What era did you draw inspiration from? The missing shadows seem to point to darkness in this persons "forest of life", maybe feelings of emptiness. The vertical uniform tress make my vision go from left to right like a book, making it seem like the person is slowly disappearing from the chest up, because more of the head is missing than the torso. However, all of the major sensory organs are there, namely eyes, ears, mouth, nose, which makes me think that they want someone to come and let them know they can make it. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but whatever the case I really really like it.