More Drawings from Sketchbooks: Identity

Sketchbook Drawing #11, 2012
Pencil on Paper
No blog yesterday!  Ugh.  Snow storm.  Loss of power, etc.  Moving on...this is what I started, that I'll now finish:

This drawing makes me think about identity, which is a funny thing.  At once the word itself can totally contradict itself.  To identify with something connects you with others who have also identified with said thing.  To explore one's own identity, and be an individual is in opposition to that, or maybe further connection to it.  I'm not sure.  I have no advanced physiological training, and have no expert information to add to this topic, I just find it interesting.

What we choose to build our identity out of is funny.  I see a lot of it in my students.  Here at school kids make choices about how they want to represent themselves.  Some guys want to be camo wearing big truck drivers.  Others want to throw on some Ray-Bans, jam out to Cudi and become baby hipsters.  They're identifying with certain groups, and including themselves in that.  They're saying, "Okay world.  I'd like you to know the following things about me based on some choices that I'm going to make.  Please expect the following."

And we all do it.  I'm not sure we fully realize that we do, but we do.  I suppose it comes back to safety in numbers.  Nobody want to do something as hard as life alone.  We want to feel like we belong with someone.  We want to do life together.

Nothing wrong with that. 

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