If you are a follower (or a lurker), you may have noticed that I changed my profile picture. Seems the family voted that I looked too old and not at all like me in the pastel self portrait which I drew a months ago. Okay, so I have never been able to really see my own image in a mirror or any place else for that matter. I truly have no idea what I look like. Pictures are one thing, but how we see ourselves is not like what is seen by others.
Coming in August at Snarky Art…the Studio, will be my two self portraits done at 40 and 45. I need to work on the Artist at 50 painting because that date is fast approaching! Neither the “at 40” or “at 45” paintings show my face. The self portraits I paint are about my life, not my image. The paintings done every 5 years are not about me, they are about “me”. Can I explain that any further? Not really, one will understand when they see the actual paintings. The stories contained in them are probably known only to me and those who were a part of them. Self portraits are so hard!
At the latest Folk Friday, the sparse crowd made it a bit difficult to find “victims” for the portrait chair, so I ended using an image of Lynn D’s just for practice, and Marti JD did a painting of me while I drew my only real person, Craig. He later said he had been “Krewed” which I found hilarious.
To get to my point, our own image is a strange and mysterious thing. We will never see our own face unless an identical twin, and even then, personalities intervene. So who are we really? Are we a measure of the company we keep? Are we a product of our environment? Both questions can be topics of dissertations at the highest levels of education, but I have a question that has yet to be answered….if you can give me a true and proven answer, I would truly appreciate it!!
Assume a person is born deaf, totally and completely deaf, never having heard a human voice. If so, then what is the “voice” that is heard inside their own head when “thinking to themselves?” You as a hearing person would “hear” words, phrases and voices, but if you are born with no ability to know what is the human voice, then what do you “hear” in your own “thoughts” when talking to yourself? How are thoughts processed? Does a stone deaf from birth person use imagery, color and concept of touch to make thoughts? This idea has always fascinated me. How does one explain it to a deaf person who cannot process the concept of vocalization? If sound is not a part of brain function and processing of information, then what replaces it? Who is the person or self within their own body and mind?
Okay, so it was more than one question, but I would still like a viable answer.
Waxing philosophic, are we? Whatta question! Do I detect someone not fully "comfortable in their own skin"? You have inspired some thoughts, though I dare say better minds than mine have filled our libraries for cenyuries with attempts at "viable" answers. That said, I plan to do a blog post on your question(s) as a (hopefully) refreshing break from my normal format. Look for it in the next day or so. Thanks for the motivation.
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