Yet another remake of A Star is Born has blessed the silver screen. The story never grows old and each version becomes an instant classic. Stardom. Instant. Classic. Words that may or may not fit together. Instant stardom implies that there is little work involved with becoming a classic but despite our will to believe otherwise we know better.
How is a star born?
We know how people are born. And thanks to Malcolm Gladwell we know that 10,000 hours of practice gives birth to experts.
But how is a persona born?
It would be easy to say they just appear because in many ways this seems to be the case. However, upon closer examination, this is not so. Personas are generated by circumstances. Circumstances in which I might find myself and am looking for a new or different approach to moving from one particular state to the next. Personas become a means by which to navigate through a situation. I liken the assumption of a persona to the way a child engages in pretend play, becoming ‘mommy’, ‘daddy’, ‘teacher’, or ‘doctor’ in order to gain understanding of what it means to respond to a situation in the way ‘mommy’, ‘daddy’, ‘teacher’, or ‘doctor’ would. The child does not approach this pretend play analytically, the way I am writing here about my use of personas for a similar purpose, but does so creatively - through play. The child cannot explain the how or why of his or her pretend play, this is left up to the adults observing, the developmental psychologists (citation Bruner), and the pedagogues who may or may not build a scaffolding (citation Vygotsky) around the play area to assist the child on his or her journey up the tree of knowledge. Call it scaffolding, modeling, or part of a reflective practice in which the experienced practitioner shows the trainee, the apprentice, what it means to be a master of the practice (citation Schön). I am asserting these are all similar practices with similar purposes and directly related to the practice and purpose of applying personas as tools in a painting practice.
Like an egg and a sperm, or an apple seed, even before the circumstance giving birth to the persona there needs to be some material that by the twinkle in an eye or by falling onto fertile ground can grow into the persona, when the circumstances are such. A child must first have an inkling of who or what ‘mommy’, ‘daddy’, ‘teacher’, or ‘doctor’ is in order to begin pretending to be any of these. The scaffold provided by the pedagogue is this inkling; the pedagogue is ‘mommy’, ‘daddy’, ‘teacher’, or ‘doctor’ and through their interaction with the child they show the child who this person is. The master showing the apprentice how to do the job, talking through each step along the way, is not only teaching the craft behind the task but what defines the craftsmanship behind profession. When the child or apprentice is then left on his or her own to repeat the task as he or she has been shown they are doing so by ‘putting themselves in the shoes of the other’ whom they had previously observed performing the task. In cases such as those the person whom the child or apprentice is modeling is someone ‘real’, a person with whom they engaged actually and intimately. A persona is not ‘real’ in this same way, nonetheless the artist employing personas as tools in his or her practice must engage with the persona in a way that is both actual and intimate. For this to happen the relationship to the persona must develop in a way similar to the relationship between a writer and a character, or even pseudonym, he or she brings to life on the page. The backstory must be (or begin) to be written.
The backstory is the seed of the persona’s inclination.
A circumstance presented to me in a particular way will reveal to me my own shortcomings or inclinations for resolving it. If I wish to circumvent these I must find a work-around; and one way of doing this is looking to how others might approach the situation. How did that painter resolve that approach to a particular form is not just a question of the craft but of the craftsmanship, and in turn what led the craftsperson to that particular resolution. These are questions art historians and theorists ask of the work and its author. [Elaborate further here with Barthes ‘Death of the Author’ … pomo, popomo, usw.]
The characteristics of a persona have to come from somewhere. In part, they come from me. But I also collect bits and pieces from others - other personas of public figures, literary characters, people I know personally and people I’ve never met. I enjoy listening to stories people tell of their lives, their adventures, and who they have met along the way. I am an avid reader of biographies, profiles, announcements in the social pages, and obituaries. No persona is created from a single identity but each is a composite of multiple identities. In short, I have a collection of ‘traits’ stored away in my head, waiting for the moment when I can pull out this collection to find the right tool for the job - a persona adept to dealing with the circumstance.
In the two years since beginning this project I have found that after becoming familiar working with the three personas, Melusine, Petra, and Franzi, I have begun fashioning other personas to address other circumstances, for instance, The Curator, Linnea Katana Throes. Although she came to be just over six months ago I have not applied her as fully as I had envisioned at the time of her inception however, I am always aware she, along with her son Emery David Henson and ex-husband Dolph Waral Henson, is there in my tool box, ready to be called upon when needed for more in depth application.
Still, this might not answer the question of how the personas are developed. So, I have decided to document the development process of a persona in a slightly different and more specific way. Note, this persona is in the process of being developed, it is too early to say if she (she is a she) will amount to much if anything at all. What I know about this new persona at this early stage is she has arrived to be a nemesis to Melusine who will deal with the circumstance of her by using the skills of a writer. This persona is an icy narcissist, living behind the mask of an identity built out of the lies she tells both herself and others. She constantly exploits in the name of ‘art’ of which in reality she knows absolutely nothing because she is an empty shell, unable to feel anything, a wanna be who can only operate via ‘gaslight’. What will happen to this new persona? Who can say at this point. Knowing Melusine, I can only suspect she might use her words to rip the mask from her nemesis’ head, revealing the true identity behind it for all to see, and once revealed