Hi, I’m Pete.
I used to spend a lot of time working on my “bio” on Myspace. And Facebook. Maybe even Neopets, if that was an option. And I used to have free websites on Tripod and Geocities. There’s so many times on the internet where you feel obligated to describe your identity only to realize that no one actually looks into it. But you gotta put something, right? For the people that are into.. “understanding”. Something short? Something expansive?
There’s been times when someone will catch me off guard and assure me that they really liked my “bio” or quote something from it. And it’ll have been so long since I’d even seen it that I immediately panic for fear of having written something corny. They were never corny, though. I nail it, every time. And that’s exclusively because there’s no bar set, no standard. I’m yelling into a void with these damned proclamations.
Honestly, I started this post intending to write a definitive “bio” but that’s not going to happen. This is still something I want to talk about. There’s not going to be very many points where you get to offer a “definitive” introduction to your new friends, it doesn’t seem realistic. That kind of means you expect everyone to be the same and that a new friendship is robotic. You don’t get to “meet” someone and hand them a pamphlet describing your date of birth and interests. That would be tight, though. I think- I’m certain- that’s why birth charts cycle in and out of popularity. It’s easy, then too easy.
So, I guess I’m cool with whatever. I’ll put it out there, whenever applicable. I’ll “read the room”.
In a similar way, I’m thinking about when you discover a new artist, you try to find “where to start” with their movies or music, etc. You’ll probably not meet that person so you really only have these things. But imagine if it was common for them to be like, “this is my first movie! See this one first!”. Like not their literal first movie but their “Me” movie. I think that’s basically been done but like I said it’s not common. And not everyone gets to do that.
To summarize: I want to have a definitive introductory piece about myself just for the sake of “where do I start,” but obviously the larger scale of time and actions will do the actual job. It likely wont be where “you” start. Even if I decide on one Bio, it’s fleeting and I don’t see myself using it the next time I need one. Because of growth, of course.
I think one of my favorite “bios” I’ve done was an artist bio that I might try to find. Those are also weird but I think there’s a larger context behind that.
Found it:
“I’m Pete. Pete is a multimedia visual artist who loves fruit and cups of room temperature water. Everything is a tool for art and anything can be turned into art. From comedy, to performance pieces, to the written word- all things I create come from a similar intention. I consider drawing and painting to be the most immediate and gratifying forms of expression. Each piece is a window into a larger eventual manifesto that has yet to be committed to cohesive text. I hope you enjoy my work and what I’ve done!”
It’s not what I remember. I remember dragging out the “water” thing more. It’s also not even really “about me”. It’s more about what I think art is. Or thought at the time. It seems like I was being excessively positive and like I didn’t mean any of those words toward the end. I think I also had to push through my cynicism for Artist Bios in order to get myself to write it. Yeah that’s a different subject altogether, now that I think about it. “Room temperature water” is kinda funny. I’m ok with it. But it’s still just me from a few years ago.
Alright that’s it. Thanks.
