What is a mask? Literally and figuratively.
Do creative pursuits construct a truer self? Or do they allow for a mask to be constructed? Or perhaps another persona?
What is a mask?
Masks that we can see. Masks that are hidden.
A mask conceals important parts that we rely on in order to identify a person from the outside.
The mask hides the face but creates a new face.
Recognizability is both obscured but renewed.
A mask is like a key into another portal of a persona. A foundation for presenting another persona.
A transformative device for understanding who someone is.
Identity isn’t it necessarily it. Outside and inside might not always coincide.
The features of the face converge into a whole. No particular part is more important. But once a significant portion is covered up, the recognition of the whole becomes difficult.
What is a face?
Explored as a portrait painter.
A technique is a way for the artist to make what they’re trying to do accessible to themselves. It’s almost the opposite of what a mask is.
My technique to convey the face is to start with the nose because it helps me to triangulate the face.
A face is: the features converging within the margin just enough to convey a recognizability.
The mask then is a cover up in part or whole of a recognizable form of communication.
What is the possibility for the individual to become a truer or more masked self via creative production?