Identifying Marks (2012) LGBT Group
A community arts project exploring identity through photography, colour and line. It was an extremely personal project for the twelve participants—reflecting on their (sometimes painful) life experiences. Capturing the ongoing development of their journeys; by marking the stages of individual and social awareness—past, present and, looking forward to the future.
“I wanted to do something that that represented myself, not just about my sexuality but about the spiritual side of myself. I’ve been learning about spirituality and angels.
The tear represents the pain I’ve been through in my life, through quite an abusive relationship. The background is in purple—that’s both a bisexual and a spiritual colour. It’s also a healing colour, I feel that I’m healing now. I’ve put a lot of time into the detail of the wings because I wanted it to be special, it’s more than just symbolic, it’s what I believe in.
The painting represents who I am at this moment. I’ve got the purple and the blue and a little pink, which are bisexual colours, but that’s deliberately quite subtle, as I’m not completely out. So if my parents come round it’s just a pretty picture, rather than a bisexual picture of myself. I wanted to represent my sexuality but in a subtle way.
I’ve got a quote by Oscar Wilde on the back—”We’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars.” That’s how I feel at the moment, that I’m improving, that I’m getting better, healing and knowing that life can get better.” (Emma)
“I think that my painting looks quite plain. I know that it’s very colourful but I think it looks quite simple. It sends the message out there. It is me as a person. I’m quite a colourful person, which is why I’ve put the word colour on it. Colour has always been important to me. Obviously the rainbow does represent me as being gay, it’s always been a part of me, just as the colour has always been a part of me. From when I was young, I’ve always dressed colourfully, always wearing colourful jewellery and such. When I realised I was gay, I was like, they are my colours!
It’s also quite retro in the way it looks, that’s me, retro, funky, laid-back, playful. The secret is in the black. That’s there because if you saw my flat, you would see that everything is dark. My bedroom is dark, my living room is dark — black and red. It’s my hiding space. You don’t even notice it, but it’s a hidden meaning. You wouldn’t expect it because when you see me in person I’m all colourful. But in my home, it’s dark, I’m hidden from the world. My home is my sanctuary. I’m the colour in my sanitary! It’s not a part of me on show to everybody.” (Chen)
“This painting reflects my personality, my interests, the thought processes that are a big part of who I am.
I love maths, which is why I’ve got this sudoko in this top right hand corner. I’m an amateur musician, I conduct, I sing, I play the piano and I can read music, which is why an excerpt from music is here. I was sorting out what things to cut out and put on and I found the words ‘If you love me’ which I thought would be good. It’s an excerpt from a church music piece—but I’m not religious, I just savour the beauty that you find in the music that’s generated.
The languages that are represented are English, French and Russian. Obviously I speak English, I speak French as well and I’m learning Russian at the moment. So that’s why the painting has: ‘This is me’; ‘C’est Moi’ (which is the same in French) and the Russian equivalent.
Then I’ve got some things about the way I function. I suppose that I’ve always got a lot of things to do, which is why we have the word ‘Agenda’ there. The words like inquisitive, tenacious represent the strong aspects of my personality that I’m aware of. There are also a lot of questions like ‘where next?’ etc., as from an early age I’ve always been a worrier and a bit of a perfectionist. A large part of who I am is my inquisitive nature, that means that I’m always interested in how things work and I enjoy the process of things changing, so that why that’s so strong in the painting.
I’ve got ‘Gay, so what’—that triggered ‘Different, Same, Does it matter?’ below it. This opens up to a more broader thing, like people in wheelchairs, being colour blind or whatever. Does it matter if things are different, people are different or things are the same? I think It’s a matter of enjoying every experience that’s on offer.” (David)
The Art of Taking Part 