doyouthinkyoulooklikeme?

This just happened. The more I fussed over it the more I liked what was happening . I tried to replicate it and, well, I think I'm going to keep doing it. It will be my nudge to A. Piper.

I've always thought the process of self-portraiture is a kind of honest conversation you're trying to have with yourself. Sincerity is a virtue not only in friendship, but in art too, isn't it? What lie is it that helps us see the truth? I was never a very good liar.

I tried not to edit them too much. Some of them come out faster than others. Almost like small variations on a quickly improvised tune. Just in an attempt to find the core of the thing

So I started this blog over two years ago with the idea that I would be able to forge all these new secret identities. Well, that, obviously, didn't hold my interest for that long. I'm not into covert operations so much. Still, I'm starting fresh, a little more open and upfront and it feels like I'm coming out a bit, slowly.

Here's a series of drawings I did recently, quick , ball-point pen line-work, painfully distorting my face for the sake of seeing whether my expression didn't remind me of someone else. And if, by the odd chance, I didn't get a bit of a clue of what it is I really look like.

I like the idea that I can look like someone else just by exaggerating certain features, embodying stereotypes, caricatures of myself.

Seanell said that if he hadn't broken his nose in two places, the chances of us looking like each other might have been greatly improved. He offered to reconfigure my nose for me. For free.

I'm not sure whether he took me very seriously.

Giomari the kind of guy who never forgets a face. But when I first met him he was this total stranger who started talking to me in Italian. When he heard me open my mouth he laughed and apologized and offered to give me some free Italian lessons.

Io sono un mullatto!

Winnie is runs an outreach program for high school dropouts. He's really great with the kids. He such an upbeat kind of guy it's almost unsettling.

I met Winnie in Montreal. He was waiting for his cousin at a bus stop. He doesn't get the opportunity to speak French very often and we get together to practice his conversational skills. We also spent a lot of time discussing the difference between "nigger" and "nègre."

Merci pour la photo, mon Winnie!

Do you get asked where you are from a lot? Even if your acquaintance doesn't come out with it outright, do you see this person's eyes brimming with the question, unable to focus one any aspect of your face.
Have you ever been stopped in the street and started someone starts speaking to you in a language that you don't speak?
What do you do?

Do you think you look like me?

Welcome to my blog.
I'm hoping we can share images of each other.

Who it is we think we are. Who it is others think we are.

Perhaps the one thing we all have in common is our ability to look like someone else.