David - An Explanation of People (2013)

As much as it would be practical, there is no way to specifically define what shapes an individual. Some people sculpt themselves from the inside out, while others absorb the adventure of life, and have it shape and weather them from the outside. It is a beautiful enigma that makes existence worth living, and understanding the self, as well as other individuals may be the most valuable thing to ever learn.

In most cases, a being is brought into the world as a perfect, stone statue, like the marble that would eventually become Michelangelo’s “David”. The violent and radically unstable storm of life will erode away what a person isn't, and leaves behind a sculpting, unique to only a single mind and body. A person can find themselves through spiritualism or pain whilst it chips away to reveal oneself. Carvings on the skin of the statue, like engraved tattoos define and humanize them. Extroverts, some would call them; sending and receiving the physical essence of life.

There are others – less known for their extravagance and radicalism, but equally human and unique. The introvert is a granite block, with a core so alive it sculpts it sculpts from the inside out. Any onlooker would be bewildered by the simplicity and coldness of the outside, but it takes more than just your eyes to understand such deep changes. Life has trouble forming an opinion on the introvert, and the shield of granite often never breaks under pressure, but deep underneath the surface is a brilliant cave of ingenuity in the shape of everything understood and felt – a personification of the universe just as the extrovert was the universe’s sculpture of human kind.

Inside and outside individuals are formed. Each comes by experiences in different ways, and has a different romance with the elemental emotions and experiences of life. Understanding that block of granite could be filled with churning magma, or an ant hill of complex tunnels and connections is just as important as knowing that a beaten marble statue is alive and beautiful despite its bruises.