Happy Birthday, David Bowie

See David Bowie transform over the years in one animated GIF.

Recently, David Bowie celebrated his 68th birthday. Artist Helen Green made this great little animation highlighting the various changes the man has gone through over the last 50 years or so. ETA I just found out today is actually the 50th anniversary of his first record released using the name “Bowie.”

Myself, I’ve always been a Bowie fan. Often, more a fan of the man himself than his music. Not that I don’t like his music, I do, but it’s never spoken to me as much as some other artists and certainly not as much as the actor behind all these looks has. 

And make no mistake. He is an actor. Whether he’s playing a musician or a goblin king or The Man Who Fell to Earth, when he’s in public, he’s always performing. That’s one of the places I identify with him the most. I’ve always loved the idea of being able to hide who you are, of putting on a mask, to be the person others want to see you as. What I wonder… is what is he like when he’s at home? When you’ve hidden behind so many public faces is it possible, when the masks are removed, to remember which one is the last one or do you keep going, removing more layers until whatever was you is gone and you’re nothing but the mask?

Things I think about on grey, rainy days.