masks
“We are never more ourselves than when we think people aren’t watching”, Stuart Turton says. But, the way we cover ourselves is a confession. The masks we put on, the ones we create and choose, are telling. They reveal more about us than we know.
It’s the mirror image of a diary entry, the forward facing face we use to face the world. An inverted structure constructed of our fears and all our inadequacies.
We show our strengths to hide our weaknesses. Display our steadiness to cover our trembling. We present calm and serenity in the hopes that no one will notice how unnerving we find everything.
It’s a kind of protective covering. The bullet proof vest between our hearts and the world.
It’s not a lie or a deception, so much as it is a fiction. A fiction that admits a truth, as all fictions do. It’s a story that speaks to not only our insecurities, but also our aspirational values. The deep desire to be a certain kind of person that does certain kinds of things.
The practice of making doesn’t try to disabuse us of our protections. It doesn’t try to shake them or break them. Instead it calls us to look for the places where they thin. The places where the frayed ends of the mask meets the under painting of all we’ve ever been. To draw our attention towards the ways they mix and mingle and converge. It asks us to sit with the juxtaposition and to see what we can learn.
P.S. ICAD - Day 321-325 - all the collages featured are available for purchase at my new shop. There’s still quite a bit available at my old shop as well.
Great points, Duane. Especially on the "a story that speaks to not only our insecurities, but also our aspirational values."
I think art is for evoking emotion--in others and yourself. Make whatever you want to evoke.
Btw, the new shop looks really nice and navigates well!