Student 5

Since I now understand the self-theories we talked about in our lectures, I can say that I really agree with Carl Jung when he said that in order for us to examine our balance in life we have to have a thorough understanding of our self. He also stated that we each have two attitudes (introversion and extroversion) within our self. This idea is what I attempted to express in my self-portrait project. My portrait does not support the Rilke theory, Freudian theory, Hinduism, or Romanticism. In our discussions, I learned that squares represent stability. Both of my squares represent my extroversion attitude and my introversion attitude.

Extroversion Attitude. Webster dictionary defines extrovert as "one who is socially outgoing and communicative." I used the Yoruba color scheme to define this idea. Golds, reds, yellows, and oranges express "pupa". Pupa in the Yoruba culture means passionate, warm, hot-tempered, etc. I interviewed my closest friends to get a better view of my extroverted attitude. I will be talking about ten objects that described this attitude.

1. Cotton Bottom: Dr. Roxanne Farrar explained that fabrics expressed a soft and drapey personality. Many of the people that I know say that I am comfortable to be around and cotton does represent comfort.

2. The Cheerleader: A lot of my friends said that I am bubbly, jolly, melodramatic, cheerful, and I bring out the best in people. This is the cheerleader's job. They bring out the best support out of the fans for the teams. This particular cheerleader is wearing an orange and blue uniform. When we studied the Illustration of Hildegard of Bingen, we talked about complementary colors. In the painting "The Man in Sapphire Blue", we talked about how blue creates a soft, gentle, maternal, and nurturing feeling. The orange as in the "The Cosmic Egg" brings warmth to the cheerleader's personality.

3. The Dollar Bill: A lot of people call me generous. I have been classified as a person who will give people my last dollar just to help them out.

4. Red Flowers: Flowers are delicate and gentle. Until flowers bloom, you can't really see their true beauty. I am the same way, until you get to know me and watch me bloom in your life you will see how gentle and delicate I really am.

5. The Black Pepper: The packet of pepper symbolizes my feistiness.

6. The Clear Stones: Dr. Farrar explained to us that the stone represents roughness. The clearness symbolizes transparency. Most of my friends say they can see right through my roughness that I sometimes show.

7. The Tweety Bird Angel: It is soft and represents my soft, cuddly personality. To top this off, the angel kind of expresses my innocence.

8. The Energizer Battery: The battery shows how energizing I can be and how I keep going and going.

9. The Cartoon Tommy from Rugrats: Tommy is so innocent and he is the bravest of all of the babies on the Rugrats show. Some people consider me brave for all of the things I have been through and will experience through life.

10. The Chewing Gum Wrapper: Most of the time I am sweet and I keep people fresh by letting them explore new aspects of themselves.

Introversion Attitude. Webster dictionary states that an introvert is "one whose thoughts and feelings are directed inward." I used black as the background color to show the unseen side of me. I do use a lot of the Yoruba "fun-fun" color scheme. The "fun-fun" colors I used are blues, whites, and silver and it means cool, aloof, and cold-tempered. This really describes me because I am socially reserved when it comes to talking about myself. I don't want anyone to know about me because this side of me is filled with dreams, goals, visions, convictions, and pain that I can't bear to talk about. In our preferential shapes lesson, I learned that the triangle represents goals, dreams, and visions. The three one-dimensional triangles represents those dreams and goals I have that I can't share with people until they have come to past. The 3-D triangles represent my conviction of the idea of the idea of the Trinity-God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit and how they are one. The spirals, as we learned in our preferential shape lesson, means growth and change. There are three changes I am going through and they are educational, spiritual, and emotional. The blue rocks I have surrounding the spirals symbolize the obstacles that I am confronting in order to change. The key inside represents that people have to have the key of trust to enter into my Introvert World. There are only four people who have the key and they are God, my mother, my sister, and my grandmother. I can only share a little of one of my cities in my world and the city's name is Michael Derek Hill. He meant a lot to me and I learned to be myself around him. All of these things make me a little reserved when I get around people. I don't want them to know anything about me until I trust them.

Both of these squares and their contents is the me I have come to know. It was very hard trying to analyze myself objectively and applying our lessons into my self-portrait. I hope this helps you to understand who I am as a person.

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