In my final intervention, I trailed back to the second intervention we did. In my second intervention I discussed the importance of emotional connection and how suppressing our emotions can have a negative impact on our physical and mental health. I am a big advocate for mental health for all people, all races, all genders, and all ages. Mental health is an important aspect of self care that we can sometimes neglect because it may seem not as important as the hustle of living. We tell ourselves or get told to “get over it” or “grow up” because being intoned with our emotions takes away our time from school, work, and life itself. According to a study done in the University of Minnesota, neglecting negative emotions can lead to an increase in poor mental health, lack of energy, and lack of confidence. Most of the time we look over these negative emotions as it is harder to cope with negative emotions rather than the positive ones. But if you are able to bring forgiveness to yourself and face the negative emotions you have within, you are more likely to increase positivity within yourself. My final intervention piggybacks my second intervention and is aimed to discuss the need for authenticity and the need to learn about our emotions as individual entities rather than emotions as a whole.
If I were to ask you to list as many emotions as you can, I’m sure you would be able to hit the double digits very easily. Anger, Sadness, Happiness, and Loneliness are all common emotions many of us know or have experienced. It is very common to hear about these emotions on a regular basis. It is kind of like colors in a way. You know the colors of the rainbows, but you come to find out that there are far more colors beyond the rainbow. Crimson red, ultraviolet, olivine, these are some in the wide variety of colors there are in the world. Much like colors, there are also a wide selection of emotions we feel on a daily basis that we might not be able to put our fingers on. According to Robert Pultchick, a psychologist and professor who created the emotions wheel, there are 34,000 unique emotions. Can you imagine feeling 34,000 emotions? That’s quite crazy if you’d ask me. But being able to learn about some of these emotions can help us in the long run. Brene Brown, a researcher on emotions and grief, discusses the importance of differentiating our emotions in her book, Atlas of the Heart. In her book, she goes over emotions that correlate or are similar with each other, but are different in how/what/who causes those emotions to arise. She also states that each emotion are different, so learning a coping mechanism for each one is more beneficial than using the same coping mechanism for one rather than the other.
Final Results
Back of Shirt
In my final intervention, I decided to do an abstract finger painting on a canvas. I wanted to find a way to showcase how beautiful it can be to express our emotions, but also at the same time show that there are so many different emotions. In my painting, the center of the canvas will be an imagination of self (a yellow "energy ball"). Around the energy ball are curved lines that gravitate around the ball like the planets circulating around the Earth. The lines will be different colors and represent an emotion. These lines and energies come from a big inspiration from Ben Jones pieces. In his art, he uses colorful lines as a way to show energy and how different lines and different colors can be an energy shift. You can see these forms of energy in his work form 2019, Connected. These emotions will not come from my own imagination but from the community. “For our purposes, the first level of change concerns how we can affect an individual’s attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. We want to have an impact on things people can do themselves,” (Duncombe & Lambert, pg. 254). Instead of just writing down emotions that I know, it is more interesting to see what other people know about emotions. It can also be exciting for them to see that they’re responses are being used in an artwork. Hopefully this can help them become curious about my art work so I can show them the meaning behind the art. I posted a question poll on my instagram story and sent google forms to people that I knew to ask for some emotions to work with. In my google form, I simply asked for an emotion and what color they thought correlated to those emotions. This is fairly similar to my second intervention, when I asked the Huntersworld participants to write to me, but instead I will be representing these emotions for them instead. From instagram and google forms, I was able to receive 40 responses to work with. In my painting I tried to use as many of the colors mentioned on the form as the energy surrounding the image of self.
With this piece, there are so many things I want to say to the general audience, our class, my friends, and even myself. Doing the painting outside, I hope people come up to me and ask me questions. Then I would be able to tell them about the meaning behind the painting and maybe even ask them for an emotion. To the people I ask about their emotions, I want them to feel heard. When we express our emotions, it can be very vulnerable and the worst thing that can happen when we express ourselves is when we feel as though no one is listening. I posted the finished product as well as me painting to different social media sites for everyone that submitted a response to see. I want to show them that it can be beautiful but also a lot to express our emotions. In the painting, the swirls are everywhere, they are not lined up with each other, some of the colors crashed into each other, some overlapped, and some were not so pleasant to look at. This is what emotions are. They’re hard to control, you can feel multiple at once, but they’re a part of you. Aside from what’s on the canvas, I wanted to show the audience that I was on the same journey as them. My shirt represented me carrying the weight of the emotions that were written down. The front of the shirt is what the eyes can see. Emotions as colors, as action, as words, as feelings. On the back are the emotions written out in the colors that correlate with them. The back of the shirt represents the carrying of all the emotions, the heaviness of emotions, and how we must not only see the emotions but we need to understand and spell it out. The shirt as a whole represents the authenticity and vulnerability it takes to wear our emotions on our sleeves.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLmU9MqA/
Authenticity is a big factor in facing our emotions. Authenticity is important because lying to ourselves about how we feel does not change the outcome of how we feel. To truly face our emotions we need to be ourselves and sit within the walls that we’ve built and really look within. Brene Brown states, “What we know matters, but who we are matters more.” To be ourselves, regardless of our flaws and imperfection is such a validating and empowering thing. Because we are able to bypass the need to cushion these hard emotions, but rather face them as our true selves. But that is easier said than done. I have had countless times where ignoring my emotions was more convenient than not. But to actually take the time and see the issue has helped me figure out who I am as a person and has helped shape who I want to become. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world,” (Duncombe & Lambert, pg. 171) I know it myself more than anyone else. To show the world that you mean business, it has to first start with you. Which is why Shaun Leonardo was a big inspiration to my intervention.
Shaun Leonardo is the embodiment of a male figure who is self-expressive. He shows that men have feelings too and should freely express them. I am heavily inspired by his piece where he hugs/fights another man. In his piece, he shows many hopeless emotions that you wouldn't normally see a person express in front of others. Like his piece, I want to be able to express my own emotions and the emotions of others out in public. I'm also inspired by one of our classmates. Leslie's painting of the atrocities in Palestine was extremely moving. Seeing the video of her painting outside was very inspirational and inspired me to do the same. I hope to be able to show everyone how beautiful it can be. Yoko Ono was also a big inspiration for the abstract aspect of the art. For many of her peaceful pieces, she used colorful and vibrant art to show the harmony of color and peace. I wanted to show that in my colors as well. With all these amazing artists like Ben Jones, Yoko Ono, Leslie, and Shaun Leonardo, I’ve learned that art can be powerful. “Growing up, I barely knew any black artists, and as I got into college, I realized that I still didn’t know that many black artists,” (Drew, pg. 19). This art class has shown me many amazing artists, but I know this is only the tip of the iceberg. I don’t know much about art coming into college, but this class has inspired me to look deeper into art. I want to find like minded people who create art to empower others. And to do that we just have to dive deeper.
Archelle, et al. “How Do Thoughts and Emotions Affect Health?” Taking Charge of Your Wellbeing. https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-do-thoughts-and-emotions-affect-health#:~:text=Emotions%20that%20are%20freely%20experienced,and%20lead%20to%20health%20problems..
Brown. “Atlas Of The Heart”
Drew. “This is What I Know About Art” pg. 18-19.
Duncombe and Lambert. “Art of Activism” pg. 90-95.
Six Seconds. “Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions: Exploring the Emotion Wheel” The Emotional Intelligence Network. https://www.6seconds.org/2022/03/13/plutchik-wheel-emotions/
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