Thursday, August 20, 2009

People are really interesting

I noticed a particular person on the highway, and I thought I'd share about my observations of this person. So I'm on I-15 Southbound, heading home from work, when I noticed this pick-up truck ahead of me. It was a pick up truck, American made, with a camper. The back of the truck had all sorts of Army stickers on it. "Army of One","Rangers," etc. Even the license plate was a vanity plate that made a reference to the military. But what made this truck stand out and catch my eye was this little detail that the owner of the truck decided to add. There they were.. down at the bottom, dangling from the tow hitch: truck nuts. It's been 3 years since I've seen a set of these vulgar plastic nuts. And here I was, after having moved from Miami to Washington State to then NC to now Utah that I encountered them again. And in Utah of all places??
So anyways, here was this truck, decked out with military bumper stickers, and truck nuts dangling in the air, and I start to pass alongside of it. Now, here's the kicker for me. I immediately start to picture what the person driving must look like. Then, I start to think about who this person might be.. Is he current or ex military? Is he a Billy Bad Ass? What's his deal? I start to pass him on his left, and in moments, I pass the driver's side window and get a look at this guy. Here's a sketch of what he looked like:
So my primary purpose of this sketch was to capture his pose, which I found totally at ends with the image this person was conveying with his truck. After all, he was sporting truck nuts! These things:



So what gives, right? Now maybe this guy wasn't the owner of the truck, or whatever. But I found it interesting how my first observation of the truck and it's "decorations" made me subconsciously picture a certain "look" or "personality" for the driver, and when I saw his posture, I was totally thrown off. I totally pictured someone sitting like this guy here:

Someone hanging back and chillin', basically. Not arched towards the steering wheel like he's learning to drive for the first time. Again, that person very well might not have been the actual owner. Maybe in his head he was annoyed about having to use his buddy's truck for some errands, and thus having to drive around town with those offensive plastic testicles hanging from the tow hitch. Either way, I thought it would be a great analysis of how we instantly perceive things, and automatically judge someone just on their apparent display even before seeing who the individual is.

2 comments:

  1. Great observation Carlos

    Thats the stuff that puts the E in entertainment

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  2. i didn't get to try ANY cuban food in miami, i was quite angry. my bro did take us to this really good brazilian place though-- texas de brazil or something.

    i'm digging your recent artvorks!!

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