I am a painter who utilizes the genre of portraiture to open up Ideas about Identity.

The degree of naturalism of which I choose to deploy provokes an almost immediate response from the viewer and simultaneously functions as an entry point for the work.

How do you know what sort of person you are ?

There is plenty of evidence that physical likeness has hardly ever been the portrait painters primary concern. Likeness refers to exterior resemblance, i.e. the extent to which a picture captures a person's physical attributes. Historically portrait painters have endeavoured to make likeness a function of identity, i.e. a persons essential character.

Social identity theorists have suggested that there are two broad classes of identity that express the meaning of our individuality.

Personal Identity

We have as many personal identities as there are interpersonal relationships we are involved in.

 

 

Social Identity

We have as many social identities as there are groups that we feel that we belong to.

 

 

On the one hand, the portrait is supposed to represent a real, specificand unique individual. On the other, it must convey a person's socialand cultural status - that is, a role or persona rather than a person.

The word persona comes from Latin and originally meant both 'person' and a 'theatrical role' or 'mask'.

Being a person doesn't simply mean being a flesh and bone individual, it also means being a character on a cultural stage.

A portrait is not just a picture of the self in art. It is a picture of the self as art. (self - essence of individuality) The portrayed self is a mask and masks both block access to the inner self and help us make a social commitment.

They protect us from the prying gaze of others and atthe same time give others certain images of ourselves which they can recognize and to which they can relate.

Is it true that it is your identity that distinguishes you as a unique human being, distinct from all others ?

How do you accept your sense of uniqueness with the fact that in different situations and for different people you may seem a different person?

Knowing what people look like has very little to do with knowing who they are.

The social mask, the inescapability of social stereotypes and the notion that even the identity of a single individual can be multifaceted and subject to fluctuating interpretations are areas that I am currently exploring.