LET’S MAKE A START ON DIPLOMA: MASKS WILL BE MY THEME

First ideas for my theme

The universal use of masks among very different peoples and historical ages in religion, funerary ceremonies, theatre, popular events all over the world is was first attracted me to the theme.

But what is a mask? And in what is it different from a face considering that both have human features?

Basically a mask has a fixed expression, its parts do not move or change, it becomes alive only when is worn otherwise looks inhabitated or empty. It's impersonal.

A face instead is unique to each one of us, is constantly changing. His expressions react to people and situations, adjust to feelings, respond to experiences. A real face evolves through life, develops wrinkles, creases, transforms itself in time, is impermanent, evolving from birth to death.

We look in the mirror at our face and we see ourselves, people look at us and recognize us from our face, so our own identity depends on it, with our face we express emotions, interact with each other, our face changes with life and ages as we age. We are our face.

From the sketchbook

But also masks are interesting. As a matter of fact since I started collecting images of masks I have found it difficult to keep them separate from faces. Sometimes there is a transition like in the bronze statue from Benin that was my very first inspiration three years ago.

With its stylized features it is a face but not an individual face, rather an abstracted simplified version of a face. Its eyes are empty and it could actually also be worn as a mask.

1. A collection of mask images

2. Bronze statuette from Benin

3. Simple sketches

4. Other simple sketches

Digital manipulation and selfies

I created another series of drawings and variations from a photograph of an old Mexican wooden painted figure. I played around with digital manipulation of the original image for which I used my long-trusted photo editing software Paint Shop Pro.

Beyond the fun of this exercise, I find that every manipulation transforms the image and brings about different feelings and meanings. It's what we do when we apply a filter to a selfie and change the original into an altered version of ourselves that tells the story we choose. In so doing we can create an infinite series of masks.

More from the sketchbook

1. Wax crayons on the original image

2. Oil pastel drawing

3. A detail

4. Fabric and pastel collage

5. Solarized digital image

6. Inverted color image

7. Digital pencil sketch

8. Ghosted image

9. Black and white only

And so: Faces or masks? Or both?

What is then the function of masks? They can reinforce, alter or disguise our identity, like masks used in the theatre or during religious functions. They can be used to hide, camouflage, improve or modify our faces or emotions. In some cultures women wear a veil that conceals their face from sight. But we can create a mask also by applying makeup or photoshopping our selfies.

We can even wear a feeling, like putting up a smile when we feel sad or a scornful expression when we are hurt. Or we can go to the extreme of modifying our features with cosmetic surgery to look younger or more beautiful. So we can choose which version of ourselves we want to present to the world, which story to tell.

Actually to alter one's own image can also be a creative choice. We may play with it, transforming us into somebody else or selecting which part of ourselves we want to put forward, which roles we wish to perform, and then switching them. This can be very creative as a matter of fact.

Look for instance at what a make up artist, Luca Luce, does to his face in the video below:

Dropping our masks

Actually in some cases it may be difficult to understand if what we see is a face or a mask. In many cases the difference is subtle. We can wear masks to protect our intimacy or because we are afraid that people do not like us if they see us as we are.

Or we may be ashamed that if we drop the mask, people will see our vulnerable parts, our wrinkles and flaws. Other times we wear masks out of necessity, to conform socially or because we need to play a role. So we keep making subtle shifts from one mask to the other according to circumstances.

But if we do dare to drop our masks, our face can be read like a map of who we are. More in this in a new post.