“Men Trying on Hats” and Patriarchal Society
Men try on identities as though searching for a good look in a hat store: rugged, silly, sweet, too loose, too tight. My “Men Trying on Hats” drawings are inspired by mentoring young men searching for their own true identities as well as my own experience searching for identity. Often the first hat we choose is a crown, or a baby bonnet, an indication that early choices are mostly grounded in fantasy and the “id.” Easy to cast ourselves as the crown prince or a king baby.
I adore drawing on pages from vintage dictionaries. One of my first jobs was in a library as a page; I was surrounded by worn and well-loved books. Putting hour after hour into a drawing on a discarded bit of dictionary allows me to honor age and appreciation over archival perfection.
Drawing on pages from vintage dictionaries evokes the “Book of Life” scale of my idea, a body of work representing the full scope of a man’s life. The titles are from lists of popular names for various eras, an (indication) that the work of discovering identity has been with men (and women) for centuries.
The pages are mostly from older dictionaries, books I find at library sales or thrift stores. They appeal to me because the books show the physical evidence of their former owners’ love and appreciation. They are faded, worn and even annotated-marks that attest to their journey through time and many hands--not unlike men trying to find their right path/right hat during their own lives, becoming worn and faded with the effort. Identity work is sometimes successful and true, sometimes not.