What about me?

I’m an artist and a writer who loves writing, loves words - but wriggles, writhes, sweats and rebels when it comes to writing my own bio(graphy).

And when you’re in the business of having to market yourself/your work on a very regular basis, bio-writing is a big part of this picture.

Still, I don’t think this bio-wriggling and writhing predicament is unique to me, in fact it’s probably a fairly universal affliction.

But what may be unique to me is the fact that I’m convinced I’m just too.... confusing. Too incoherent. Too inconsistent. Too eclectic. Too chaotic. Too ‘various’. Too mercurial. Too lunar. (I mean, I’m most definitely too LOONER!).

All in all, just Too Much generally. Too much of a riddling mix of a human to be able to coherently parcel myself up into one neat, congruent package.

I have often been advised (sometimes solicited, often unsolicited) that I am all of the above and this is, a Big Problem for a business or an artist. I need (apparently) to be much more One Thing.

And the compound effect of all this, brought on a sort of paralysis when it comes to being able to settle on WHICH of my riddle of characteristics, which bits of my portfolio I should settle on to spotlight in any given bio.

Which part of me is the most AUTHENTIC part of me to put up on the podium? Which part of me/my work is the most IMPORTANT to highlight? Which side of me/my work should I publicly express in my work? What am I best at? Am I too much of a Jack of All Trades? Is it wrong to get so excited about lots of things?

My first solution to this whole bio-writing challenge, was to do away with an elaborate thesis and instead pithily describe myself as ‘50% utterly daft, 50% earnest bard’.

And I was quite proud of this description - for its short, sweet, accurate distillation of my main constituent parts.

I am genuinely very daft a LOT of the time. Equally, I am not always that, I am just as readily serious, reflective, earnest and deep ‘thinky’. I swing between both poles and thus, all bases are covered in that edition of my bio.

However. When I built my website, the pithy bio suddenly felt a bit paltry. Bare bones without enough flesh on them.

So this time, I hit upon a new solution: one bio, three ways. A (very) short one, a middling one and a long meandering one. A sort of, take-your-attention-span pick of bios.

I was happy with this solution for a while.

Until I had an existential crisis during which I became convinced that three bios basically means I’m an out and out narcissist.

So then I promptly deleted all three.

So where does this all leave me now?

Well, here’s the thing:

I’m not in the business of making toothbrushes or [insert any other random product here]. I don’t need to be consistently Tip Top Toothbrush.

I don’t need to explain or justify why you should buy my unique and brilliant toothbrush. I don’t need to justify to you why my toothbrush is the best toothbrush in a market awash with toothbrushes.

I don’t need to be one-dimensionally toothbrush so that you know you can rely on me and my toothbrushes as being the best toothbrushes in the world of toothbrushes.

So no, I’m not a toothbrush manufacturer.

I am - hear this - a multidisciplinary (first clue) artist and writer.

As such, I am a human (second clue) in the business of navigating and expressing the human.

And have you ever met a human who isn’t multi-faceted? Complicated? Not one thing, but several things? Sometimes in turn, sometimes all at once?

And isn’t that the most authentic and important thing to acknowledge in any conversation or context? That life is never static - but dynamic, in flux and the terrain is by turns rugged, smooth, bendy, straight?

Isn’t the world crying out for this? For more signs of reliable and consistent humanity?

I’d wager the answer to that is a hearty YES.

So the main focus of my work is this riddling mix of what it means to be human.

My preoccupations are always going to be borne of my particular experiences and perspectives.

But my quality control system for sharing anything ‘aloud’, is if I think that my own personal vantage/skills have anything of value or resonance to offer to the universal, shared experience of what it means to be human.

In short, if I can share light, shed light or make light of any aspect of this human journey that we’re all on - through my work - then that I will.

So where does this all leave me in terms of writing bios?

I don’t know:

Feistily…

Rebelliously…

Defiantly…

Contrarily…

Mercurially…

Unapologetically…

Me?

Besides, aren’t proper biographies usually written when someone is dead?!

If so, scrap all the above - here’s my interim new one:

Inconclusive.