Thinking about how we define ourselves as individuals, every experience that moulds us, our family history, education, health, and the varieties of definitions we give ourselves, white other, christian, liberal, non binary, hill walking, wine loving, welsh origin londoner British European Brexiteer

Identity crisis from my sketch book

Considering identities of groups and their identifiers, I considered tattoos

The seductive nature of sporting events and the fanatical loyalty of football supporters

and how flags become potent symbols of national identity

and how nations establish identity through symbols, often women, France’ s Marianne, Mother Russia ( Rodina) Britannia

Interested in British exceptionalism and how in multicultural Britain we have not much except our Union Flag to express ourselves

visiting Sambourne House the museum home of Linley Sambourne, a cartoonist who used his family and servants to p[ose for tableau that he then turned to editorial cartoons . My wife Belindagracefully agreed to pose as Britannia, a potent symbol of Britain since she featured on coins since the Roman occupation

Considering the complexity of the photograph of my friend Dr Faisal Samji, an Ismaili Gujarati speaking Tanzanian born, passionate supporter of English Soccer Rugby & Cricket, he posts this photo every time there is an international match

Dr Faisal Samji

Thinking about the British exceptionalism I discussed with our Ukrainian refugee lodger we watched the last night of the proms and I was struck how it was one of the few popular expressions of British identity, I decided to make a tableau of a scene from the televised production with the over the top once a year national exuberance and flag waving