Art as Therapy

I have started to compile a list of ‘I’ statements that describe who I am. I thought that if traditional self-portraits were too limited in scope to say something meaningful about who I am; beyond what I look like, then what about a series of statements that comprehensively describe everything about me (both seen and unseen).

1. I am a son
2. I am a brother
3. I am an uncle
4. I am a father
5. I am a cousin
6. I am a son-in-law
7. I am a Christian
8. I am mixed-race
9. I am a brother-in-law
10. I am a husband
11. I am an employee
12. I am a manager
13. I am teetotal
14. I am a registered voter
15. I am an Art Psychotherapist
16. I am a driver
17. I am an organ donor
18. I am 33
19. I am tax payer
20. I am a British citizen
21. I am a university graduate
22. I am a commuter
23. I am a Londoner
24. I am football supporter
25. I am a worrier
26. I am a daydreamer
27. I am a pacifist
28. I am an introvert
29. I am a non-smoker
30. I am male
31. I am a cyclist
32. I am heterosexual
33. I am a godfather
34. I am right-handed
35. I am slow
36. I am medium build

What was interesting about this exercise was that these descriptions only make sense as a compilations of statements spoken or read together. As individual statements they say very little about me or recount general descriptions that might be true of anyone – male, average build, mixed race). Their power lies in in their grouping/ combination as well, as the statements that are left out or left unsaid. Writing these descriptions down also makes me wonder if each of the 36 statements have equal weighting or if some statements are more important than others. If so, does the list need to be reordered in some way?

Given more time, I also wonder what other things I could think to say about myself or how this list might change over time.