Drawing: Non-Conformity / Rebel, rebel - non-conforming

RTomens, 2021

Are you a conformist, or non-conformist? Well? Come on! 

That would be hard to answer for anyone except the dedicated social warrior, I should think. Conforming to what? So-called 'rebels' conform to type, don't they? They all conform. The only difference being that they would consider their tribal inherently non-conformist. 

Rebel, rebel, your face is a mess. Yes, David, but what about us teenage boys? A girl's face might have been a 'mess' after a wild night on the vodka and tears ruining the mascara, but the only way our faces could get messed up was by someone's fist. Luckily, that never happened to me in the early-70s, although it was close run thing a few times. 

We were only as rebellious as the average teenager. It's funny how things turned out, though. I conformed less to expectations at school than most of my friends. Even they passed more exams than me, ultimately. And as the years passed, carrying us into adulthood, I found myself conforming less to the social norms than them by not being eager to get a car, marry and have kids. We drifted apart quite quickly really, the first big break being when I moved to Aylesbury from the village where I was born, then the final farewell of moving to London. By then, I'd already left them...not necessarily 'behind', but definitely on their well-trodden paths. 

I don't know what 'type' I conform to, if any. I do know that I've constantly found myself to be an 'outsider' in most work situations amid the painfully 'normal' people I've had to work with. I made my own bed there by never going to Art collage and getting a career that would involve working with 'creative' types (whatever they are). Mind you, from much that I've seen, I don't think 'creatives' are necessarily that interesting either. 

The drawing here is one of several I've made recently. I got out the charcoal again, on a whim. Two minutes in I was captivated by the dark, dramatic lines only charcoal can create. The background is a photo I took whilst on holiday in Sete, France. Working with predetermined shapes suggests a direction, but sometimes I'll go against them, because I'm a non-conformist! 

Stay sane.