46 - Identity
It’s been a big week for SneakyArt. I was on the news with Global News BC and with Vancouver is Awesome. I also spoke on the radio with 980 CKNW ‘The Jill Bennett Show’ and on ConnectFM Canada’s ‘Dupaher-wala Show’ with Tarannum Thind.
In this issue, I am sharing updates from the Faces for India project, a secret discount code for prints, and some notes from a book I’m reading.
Exciting times!
But first …
… Am I an influencer now??
I crossed 10000 fans on IG, which has given me the superpower of putting links in my stories.
I am afraid I will not wield this power with responsibility. Adrenaline courses through my veins when I hit that ‘Add link’ option.
Can a man get drunk on such a tiny amount of power?
Faces for India
With all the press coverage, Faces for India reached 200 supporters this week! I am delighted at the response. As much as the pandemic has eroded our trust in political leadership, it has revealed the extraordinary resilience of individuals, and the helping instinct inside each one of us. In the words of Mr. Rogers,
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’
Here are some portraits of people who have come to help.
To see all the latest portraits drawn in this project, visit here.
Since the interview with GlobalBC, there has been a flood of new contributors and my project has raised nearly $10,000!
I’ve drawn 114 portraits so far, and this week I expect to reach 150. When I do, I will offer 25 more slots. These extra slots will first be offered to newsletter subscribers (i.e you), and then opened to a general audience on social media. Be sure to book a slot as soon as you receive my next mail, because spots may run out quickly!
This week, in SneakyArt
I made a quick drawing on the train this week. It is a drawing of two people who didn’t know each other. But when the doors opened, they turned their heads together to see if anyone would enter. It was just one moment, here now, gone the next. After it passed, the old lady looked down at her phone again. She slipped a foot out of her slippers and scratched the back of her leg. The young woman turned to gaze out of the window, her head resting back, nodding gently to the music in her head.
When I draw on public transport, I have to draw quickly, because I never know when my subject might leave. In this case, I drew this one in 5 minutes because my own stop was coming up.
In Kitsilano, from my seat at an outdoor patio, I saw a cafe and an apartment building across the street. I decided to draw while my food arrived.
Prints
You can now order giclee prints of SneakyArt (shipping in North America only). All prints are made using the highest-quality archival inks on fine art paper.
Visit my shop to check out some listed prints, or feel free to request a print of a drawing you may have seen on my social media, this newsletter, or my blog. Use code SNEAKYSALE at check out to get a subscriber-exclusive discount.
Identity
I am reading Francis Fukuyama’s Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. The book speaks about the clash of the inner self vs outer society, and the “demand for recognition” that has emerged in politics since the Reformation and the French Revolution. It is essential reading in today’s time when resentment rooted in “lack of recognition” has spurred nationalistic/supremacist politics. It is interesting to read how the same thing that catalyzed a demand for democracy is now being weaponized to undermine democracy. Perhaps also in this is a key to set things right?
Here are some insights from what I have read so far -
Individuals throughout human history have found themselves at odds with their societies. But only in modern times has the view taken hold that the authentic inner self is intrinsically valuable, and the outer society systematically wrong and unfair in its valuation of the former. It is not the inner self that has to be made to conform to society’s rules, but society itself that needs to change.
The author traces the emergence of inner self identity with the works of Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant and Hegel. Under Martin Luther, at the time of the Reformation and the invention of the printing press, it began as a personal relationship with God that wrested control over self-identity and human morality from medieval Christianity. Kant presented a secular version in which human dignity revolved around human will. For Friedrich Hegel, the desire for dignity extended beyond the personal, into the realm of political recognition.
Consider the parallels to modern times,
[Hegel] argued that human history was driven by a struggle for recognition… The great conflict of his day was the French Revolution, and its enshrining of the Rights of Man… Hegel pointed to a fundamental truth about modern politics, that the great passions unleashed by events such as the French Revolution were at base struggles over dignity. The inner self was not just a matter of personal reflection; its freedom was to be embodied in rights and law. The democratic upsurge … was driven by peoples demanding recognition of their political personhood, that they were moral agents capable of sharing in political power.
The slaves would, in other words, rebel against the masters; a world in which in the dignity of only a few was recognized would be replaced by one whose founding principle would be recognition of the dignity of all.
Links to Press Coverage
[Radio] 980 CKNW, on the Jill Bennett Show - “Local artist is sketching for a good cause!”
[TV Interview] with Global News BC - “Vancouver’s ‘sneaky artist’ uses his talent to raise money for India’s battle against COVID”
[Web Interview] with Vancouver Is Awesome - “Vancouver's 'Sneaky Artist' raising money for India COVID relief”
Don’t miss…
[Past, Present and Future] - My blog-post deconstructing a scene from the epic Satyajit Ray movie, Nayak.
Ep 18 of the [SneakyArt Podcast] with iPad-artist Rob Sketcherman.
[Bonus Commentary] for Ep 18, about the many benefits of dabbling in digital art.
My first, exclusive [Behind-The-Scenes post] for monthly patrons.
[SneakyArt YouTube channel] for drawing videos and timelapses.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Nishant! Congrats! You deserve this.