What's in a name

So I am now Aaron Stewart-Ahn. Formerly I was the not yet an artist of any note whatsoever named Aaron Stewart. Why did I change my name? Well, there's another director out there named Aaron Stewart. He's obviously more established than I am, and he's got, I believe, a year or two on me. When my first video got some airplay I received communications about my departure from my animation. Which was interesting, as I'd worked in animation but never done some. On one of those bored days, I googled myself and lo and behold, another Aaron Stewart. I called him, in fact, and had a surreal discussion with my doppleganger which took some convincing on my part to let him know I wasn't lying.

What's the first line of this other Aaron Stewart's bio? "Aaron Stewart likes cartoons. He also likes toys. In particular really old Japanese toys, but just about any toy will do." That could literally be the first line of my bio. Uncanny. Someday I think it would be either fun to collaborate with him, or it'd end up devolving into the last hour of Dead Ringers, but with more Mazinger and Macross toys to fight over.

Even recently I was getting Res magazine a photo and the art editor told me they loved my new animations.

Then there is the curious phenomena of googling yourself, which everyone should do, because you turn up some really interesting variations upon yourself. One Aaron Stewart is really quite a strong Christian and works with small scale multimedia and the church in Texas. He has blonde hair, if I recall. He's the anti-Aaron, the Yin to my Yang. I sometimes worry about this Aaron, as his portfolio mainly seems to be websites he has desiged for his family's business and a wedding. When I check on him I'm hoping for an upgrade to the website, a flourishing and an updated bio which indicates success. We also have quite opposite taste in fonts.

Another Aaron Stewart lives in New Zealand (we share a middle initial, too), and again, writes a scarily Christian blog. He is - a writer! He compares being without god to being like Gollum. This Aaron believes that this Aaron is like Gollum. Not cool. This Aaron, like myself, has ambition, arrogance - but always, always brings it back to the Bible. He wishes to be pious but he seethes with desire - he writes "Women that I find hot shouldn’t be married. thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, young man. yes yes, I know." This Aaron is my Jungian dark half. I've been tempted by women who aren't single. I didn't have prayer to ward off that feeling.

I continue. Here's the Aaron Stewart I never want to be. The nudist. He is a nude newscaster, so again, there is the leaning towards media, the need to communicate to a larger world. He wishes to be a fireman. He has the same unusual desire to help people I find myself burdened with sometimes. But he's nude on the Internet.

This Aaron Stewart draws a crude webcomic that I can't make head or tails of. He likes manga and anime. Again, like myself and Aaron Stewart, too. I can't find out much about him, though I find that once determining his Chinese zodiacal perfect partner, he states that he wants to meet one but with red hair. His comic appears to concern a red head. I sense a lot of Aaron Stewarts are lonely and have had girl troubles. I want to warn this one: the role playing games and the love of comics, they will deny you.

Another religious blogger Aaron Stewart. I suppose the name implies a lineage of Scottish piety, so I should expect it. I'm getting tired of Christian Aaron Stewarts, figuring they must all combine my arrogance with the power of expecting eternal life... But this one really startles me. He's thoughtful, his Christian work seems utterly devoted to mercy and he expresses himself in a kindly manner and he posts a link of a really rad picture of an owl. I realize I have some arrogance myself about my beliefs like my atheism, and for a moment I am humbled by a fine example of an Aaron Stewart.

All of us seem to have suffered for the love of women, and are thoughtful, and are writers and artists and producers and nude newscasters. We like anime and cartoons and animals and ponder the mysteries of the universe with a cocky certainty. We wish to help others.

So anyway, I decided to professionally add the Ahn to my name, which is my mother's maiden surname. I'm actually getting very used to it, proud of it even. And as I am completely both aspects of my mother and father and couldn't be myself without influence and traits from one or the other, it begins to fit well, like a piece of clothing that's adored, as if it belonged to me all along.