Student 6

(question 6)Please explain how you used ideas from the resources on the self we studied. Did you consciously use ideas from or react to any of the following resources in your self-portrait: the psychological theories of self? The Rilke discussion of "faces," "hands," or "costumes"? The Asian views of the self? The examples from art of non-representational self-portraits? Please clearly explain what ideas from these sources you integrated into your self-portrait and why.

I think I used the ideas concerning colors and shapes more than anything else because I always use colors to describe the moods that I am in. When I am sad, I lean towards the color blue. When I am lonely, I lean towards the color black. When I am happy, I wear reds and yellows or anything bright. Sometimes I wear red when I'm sad and black when I'm happy, so at times colors don't represent my moods. I used the shape to exhibit the chaos I feel in my life. By appearance, I seem stable and unmoving. But on the inside, I'm going crazy. You would never know unless I let my shell crack and allow what I was feeling on the inside show on the outside. I tried to illustrate this by the use of the circles and the various colors I used to represent my center. As time goes on, my mask starts to crack and everybody sees the real, vulnerable me. And that's something that I absolutely cannot stand. I guess you could say it's a pet peeve of mine.

(question 7) In what ways do these different disciplinary resources agree with one another on the question of what is the self?

The resources agree with each other because they all have the idea of the self in common. They all believe that there are certain attributes we must contribute to the self and that there are characteristic of each of us. They all seem to focus on a center which we try to protect by any means.

(question 8) In what ways do they conflict with each other on the question of what is the self?

The perspectives that they use to achieve their ideas of the self is what causes the conflict. What one person sees as a definition of the self, another might not. There is a conflict by which means we interpret ourselves and how we express ourselves to the world. As long as there is this boundary, there will always be a conflict between these doctrines.

(question 9) Does your self-portrait try to reconcile these ideas or did you choose a particular postion to convey? Why?

My self is too chaotic to reconcile. I just tried to put my self into a perspective so I can undertand where I am and how I can move on from where I am. I did lean more towards the frustration and chaos in my life because it is such a large part of my self. It's inevitable.

(question 11) In our unit on the self, is there a right answer to the question of what the self is? If not, what is your reaction to our inability to provide a clear answer one way or the other on this issue?

I don't there is a right answer to what the self is because we are all so diverse. There is too much room for interpretation and no one, in my opinion, will interpret the self the exact same way. My reaction is normal because this doesn't come to me as a shock. If we all shared the same brain and thought patterns, maybe this could be possible. We can relate to each other's ideas about the self, but we would never end up with a right answer.

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