Student 4

May 2, 2000

The discovery of one's self is a subject that has existed throughout human history. The individual can be seen as integral part of the intellectual, philosophical, and religous worlds alike. Although there are theories on an almighty figure that is the focus of our lives, the discovery of one's self is sought after by all people. The major theme of the material we have studied lately has been the self, and its adaption to art. The psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were studied. Visually, the course covered the notion of art as a form of self-expression during the Romantic Period.

The common thread of the self-expression unit was that there is deeper meaning within yourself. The psychological theories of Freud and Jung both discussed the habitation of an ego within a person. Freud's theory considered the idea of conscious and unconscious thought. Jung had a similar theory and split it into extraversion and intraversion. In both theories there are thought processes taking place within a person - one of which is being expressed outloud while the other is being held inside.

The art and music of the Romantic Period sought to express the emotions appropriate to the human experience. Religion, nature, and self-expression were major themes of the period. The artist that had the greatest impact on me was Caspar David Friedrich. His paintings do an amazing job of depicting the human powerlessness against forces of nature and inner-struggle. Friedrich's art is culminated by emotional intensity. The two pieces of art that stand out the most are - "The Tree of Crows" and "The Traveler Above the Sea of Fog." These paintings had an effect on me because they captulated the idea of struggle in one's life. When I studied "The Tree of Crows," I thought of the crows as the darkness that looms in our lifes. The darkness is always there in our lifes. Yet in the background sunshine, representing happiness, always tries to breakthrough. "The Traveler Above the Sea of Fog" struck a chord im my heart because it was as though the man was above the troubles in his life. He was looking at the fog, which represented the cloud's that were in his life, but he was able to look beyond them. Art is an important median to describe who you are, and Romantic art and music did this to great effects.

Throughout one's life, a person tries to come to a realization of what makes them who they are. When adapting this to my life, I think of the forces that have molded me as an individual. The primary aspect that describes myself is the idea of unconformity. Being a follower and doing what everyone else is doing is a phase all people go through, but discovering your own personality is imperative to growth. Montaigne once said, "Once [a person] conforms, once do what others do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul." At an early age my father gave me this direction in my life, I have used it as a form of self-expression. Instead of participating in team sports, I used tennis as a tool to express my competitiveness and determination.

The images of my self-portrait include: rain, mountains, trees, tennis, and a light bulb. The rain is the idea of purity and spirituality, cleansing that which is dirty. The mountains stand for achieving the highest goals a person can reach for. Tennis is the passion of my life, describing myself on a physical and menatl level. The light bulb represents education. The image of light stands for the beginniing of the day and life, the existence of hope in what can sometimes be a dark world.

The reason I used the images of the sun, mountains and rain is because they are all major themes of the Romantic Period. Each image appears in many landscapes. Friedrich uses mountains to depict the allegory of faith. The sun is used to symbolize the presence of hope and happiness. The rain is often used in landscapes to depict purity. The different use of colors represent melancholy, isolation, happiness, and inner-strength.

One of the most important aspects of life, but also one of the most difficult, is the search within. As human beings, we all attempt to search for a higher meanings. At the end of the search we hope that we are satisfied with the "self" that we have become.