Art Imitating Life

I often toe the line between making the right impression on others and being true to who I am. When we travel we are routinely surrounded by new people and new situations. I find that these habitual and nouveau experiences open the wonderful opportunity to become a highly skilled artist of the impressionist kind.

You know the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”? Well, it’s true, we all want to do what the locals do but I believe that, given the chance, most of us fall along the lines of, “when in Rome, do whatever the hell you want to do.” When you land in a new country, city, town, you don’t know anyone or anything and suddenly you realize that you can be anyone you want to be.

Enter the artist. Impressionism was a 19^th century art movement in which radical artists broke the rules of academic painting. Impressionism was a different way of seeing. It was an art of immediacy with an emphasis on the ever changing qualities of the subject. I read about Impressionism on Wikipedia and applied what it said about painting to the life that surrounds me. It got me thinking that I, and many I know, are quite like the Impressionists of the 19^th century. But instead of painting a canvas we paint ourselves.

Our magnum opus encompasses our appearance, speech, thought, actions and personal history, and we create it on-the-spot in any given country, town, or situation. The best thing about my impressionistic attitude or façade is that, unlike the painting, mine is not a permanent canvas, it is simply who I am today, in this county, and around these people. I can start all over tomorrow should I so desire.

Which, in turn, leads me to ponder this: by painting who I am on each new occasion, am I still Gentiana? Or am I pretending to be something else so I integrate successfully with who and what I am environed by?

I think that we all have a little bit of personality impressionism in us. After all, there are very real situations in which we must act and present ourselves in a certain and defined way. It may not be who we are, but we do it for the betterment of all involved.

Every person has many personalities within them; it all pertains to our likes and dislikes, jobs, hobbies, and social tendencies. By day I am Gentiana a Work New Zealand coordinator who lives and works in the big smoke (Auckland, NZ), by night I am Gentiana a book lover who can’t wait to spend time outside in the Wops (Nature). Sometimes I pretend I am from Scotland, sometimes I am an intellectual, and sometimes I am a mystic, I like reggae today but tomorrow I might abhor it. I can do and be whoever the hell I want cause I am in a different country.

Some people know me as Gentiana or G, others know me as Tiana or T. Some people do not even realize the connection and have no idea who I am if I say they name they are not accustomed to hearing.

The point is, in some way or another I have made a different impression on everyone I come into contact with. I change to suite a situation because I can. And, all those various impressions I create are really just the pieces of the puzzle that when combined create the whole canvas that is me.