Yourself in a Mask

Masks mean so many different things for us.

Make a list of all the ways people use masks. Some positive some negative

• Halloween
• For ceremonies... I was thinking of cool African masks I have seen. 
• To protect yourself against the cold in the winter when you ski
• For surgery or at the dentist office
• When you see a sketch of a bank robber or that scary person in the movies

I am sure you can come up with more. We know the references to "That person" wears a mask, when they don't want us to see their true colors or to present themselves a certain way. We know that part of the disconcerting feelings of masks is that we aren't able to read expressions that people have under the mask. 

So this new state of being in society is very loaded and hard to get comfortable with. Some of our basic instincts are being taken from us in our interactions with others. Not only are we being challenged by distance in our socializing we are being thrown off by not being able to see people's whole face. It feels eire. 

I thought doing some sketches of ourselves wearing masks might helps us get more comfortable with the necessary situation. I feel strongly about the positive role portrait have on people. It gives you time to reflect, time for you to see how you change from one time to the next when you do a portrait. So this is an important moment in time and it will help us to see how we feel about ourselves in a mask and to get time to "sit with it".