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Show pg 12 I explored two other masks during this same session. As I became more comfortable with the work I was producing, I found myself becoming engulfed in the persona of the mask's world, even imagining a fictitious audience. One mask I created was very arrogant and overconfident with his skills as an artist. While producing a drawing, he looked down on the two masks I had worn previously. When I took the mask off, the story unveiled itself. The reason the first mask felt like a fraud was because he was measuring himself against the expectations of the overconfident jerk which created performance anxiety. This narrative showed me how performing a myth could allow me to overcome some of the issues, like my own experience with performance anxiety that I had with my art making. It was these masked performances and the prospect of transformation that inspired me to begin exploring performance art as a tool for expression and problem solving. Wearing the masks while producing art gave me similar outcomes as the first experience. There was a process, a discovery, and a transformation of thought. This concept reminded me of my early studies of the African masks within the context of their ritual use. These mask rituals were typically a process for spiritual transformation. During one of these mask-wearing discovery sessions, the idea struck me: if I really wanted to create a myth for myself, what would my storyline be? What would it look like? How would I get to the end? I decided to create a space to do my rituals and create my myth, the myth of the Unknown. This exploration, these sessions of mask-wearing discovery (even when no one could see the mask I was wearing) led to opening up an art gallery. Sure, it was a big, audacious goal. However, if I wanted to create the mythology of the Unknown, or rather defeat the mythology of the Unknown, I might as well try to find the Unknown by doing, and perhaps even succeeding, at the impossible. All of this was undertaken during my last semester. Of course. During this time, I was reading Joseph Campbell's, Hero's Journey.6 In it I saw a connection to mythmaking and the quest of becoming my ideal self. Using Campbell's book as inspiration, and pulling from my previous studies, I created my own hero's journey and a mythical world that would ensure my success as an artist, and provide me with inspiration to use for my final project. My hero's journey consisted of finding the courage to step away from the trappings of life and into the Unknown path of becoming my ideal self as an artist. The illustrations in my sketchbook became the inspiration for the mythical creatures I created, and who helped me on this hero's journey. This is where the Big Unknown was born. A large, minimalist creature who resembles a ghost, |
