What makes up me as a person? What is my character? What influences my work and my life? How do I see myself? How do I want others to see me? What contributes to my life and my practice in meaningful ways?
These are among some of the questions that begin the process of analysing myself and getting to know my 'self', my life and my practice in a more conscious, thorough way. I am inherently a very thoughtful and reflective person, inside and outside of my practice, which is something which is constantly picked up and reiterated to me from those around me in regard to my life and my work. However I have found it very invaluable and fascinating to sit down and really consider this idea of self and really try and evaluate and draw conclusions and links between the aspects of my life that make me Ehren Barnard.
And there are links, many of them, between everything that I do and I think about and I consume and I make. Naturally, everybody's lives are interconnected webs of associations, ideas, views, perspectives, actions, reactions, thoughts, feelings etc, just as our bodies are of nerves and veins and muscles and so on. And the deeper you inquire about this and ask questions and reflect and write down the different elements and pieces of 'you' the clearer the links become and the more informed your interpretation of self is. One thing leads to a couple of other things which link to something else and it can be a endless maze of hobbies and interests and character traits.
I am yet to consolidate this all into some kind of order and to then apply it to my practice and allow it to inform how I am going to go forward, but this as a start was so interesting and enjoyable and somewhat difficult also. Consciously trying to decipher your life is a challenge, especially when a lot of it is not always at the forefront of your mind. Also be vulnerable is a massive part of it, which I believe to be of great importance also.
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