Harland Miller. artist and author

When you're growing up in a small town, you don't know that the rest of the world isn't like that. I had no reason to leave Yorkshire; I wasn't trying to get away - I just knew i wanted to see more of life. I'd never felt particularly British. But the funny thing about spending a long time abroad is that it makes you feel more British. Overseas, people know the English accent if you sound like David Niven, but if you don't sound like that, as far as they're concerned,you could be Australian. So you spend a lot of time talking about where you come from. You're almost giving yourself a crash course in who you are. You get more of a sense of yourself, somehow, than you had when you were back home, surrounded by people who are similar to you. Most people din't understand my Yorkshire accent, so i'd slow right down and repeat myself. And when you do that, it's like hearing language for the first time:you really hear what you're saying. When I was living abroad, spending a lot of time in impersonal hotels, I invented an alter ego and started to work with him as a character on canvas. If you want, you can always re-invent yourself...
Watch the full length video at dunhill.com