Art Assignment Humans have a need to be heard and understood. We have a desire to express ourselves – our opinions, emotions and thoughts. A man named Karl Martino has written some inspiring words about 'living life as an expression' as a personal mission statement. Martino wrote these worlds to be an inspiration for all people. These missions include: "People feel the need to be understood, just as, or even more than the need to be loved. Listen. People shine when they believe they can make a lasting impact; this may be the core of everything we do. Inspire. A life without passion is a life not lived. Live." - Karl Martino. To enable ourselves to live our lives as an expression and make our own mark on this world we must find an outlet for this expression. One type of outlet is a talent such as music, writing, poetry or art. Art is a powerful medium for the expression of personal identity; it allows the artist to present visual images that are part of who they are. These images allow the artist to be better understood on a personal level be their audience. Fiona Foley and Lin Onus are two artists who use art not only as an outlet to express their own personalities but also as means to educate an audience about issues that they are strongly passionate about. Foley uses her work as a way to inform us about our complex society. Her Aboriginal heritage and urban Australian upbringing allow her to move between cultures and give new meaning to traditional values and contemporary views. – appendix____ Through her work Foley attempts to educate her audience consisting of both Aboriginal and Anglo-European cultures about Aboriginal history and what actually took place in the time of Australian colonization. Survival III (1988) portrays a Badtjala man of Fraser Island who is...
pages: 3 (words: 810)
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added: 01/15/2012
Throughout history man has created artistic representations of himself, to capture our identity, present them as to be understood and to further understand ourselves. Still continuing today is the materialisation and representation of our identity. It is justifiably true that images in a self-portrait generally communicate to the viewer information about the identity, character and interests of the artist. By the comparison of a self-portrait by Joy Hester and another by Andy Warhol this statement will be proven true. Events, experiences and teachings have actively shaped both Warhol and Hester. Warhol's approach to this image was screen printing, a commercial technique learnt while attending the Carnigie Institute of Technology. When he graduated, he supported himself financially by taking on advertising and design commissions from fashion magazines and a host of other commercial enterprises; later to become incredibly successful Hester on the other hand didn't receive any critical acclaim. Her emotions ruled over the images she was creating. Hester produced hundreds of drawing and ink works in quick succession. Her work was rapid, as if done in synchronisation with the emotions she was feeling at the time. As a result her image is distorted to accurately record herself and her character. The works by Hester and Warhol both contain elements that comprise an artistic representation of oneself. Elements that are shown in each work include facial expressions used to express there emotions, close ups from the shoulders up to exaggerate importance of facial expression and the lack of backgrounds in both works to emphasise subject matter. No two self-portraits, by two different artists, will be the same. Most self-portraits contain individual aspects significant to there own identity and interests. The difference in Warhol's work is the use of colour compared to Hester's monotone grays, blacks and whites. Warhol has used analogous colours not negative and...
pages: 4 (words: 828)
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added: 12/08/2011
Being Yourself and Not "Madison Avenue"
It is amazing to find how strongly advertisers and society in general tout their products. I am using this time to examine the effects of advertising in both commercial and print. How the media affects our self-esteem, the increase of violence against women and children, and whether advertisers add to our own demise, in spiritual growth, financial, and in being safe. Everybody wants what the "Jones's" (your neighbor, a co-worker, etc.) has, they want the flashy look of Madison Avenue where the rich tout their money and the women in their thinness are painted to look healthy. Before this assignment, I would glance through my monthly issue of Cosmopolitan and not notice how the advertisements kill my self-esteem. We have small boobs and need to change them(see ad for Be Your Best), we are obese and need a special pill or potion, to selling us a car to make us look sexy to the opposite sex(Toyota Rav4.) In addition, if that is not enough, they tell us our children are obese and they need a pill or a potion too. (See ad for Pedia Loss.) Avon has a new formula called Cellu-Sculpt. that takes "...an inch off your thighs in four weeks." And Botox Cosmetics sell toxins to make you look young into late life, "We promised to grow old together, not look old together." The ad shows an attractive pair, and he can clearly get his arms around her as he snuggles her close. Ads for products like Metabo-Life, Zantrex-3, Chinese Diet Tea, and Triple Lean-3 claim to help you lose weight and keep your energy. Moreover, there are even formulas to help you perform in the bedroom like Fabulously Female or Masculine Male, found in advertisements though mass medial like Cosmopolitan, as if a...pages: 6 (words: 1522)
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added: 06/19/2011
Self-esteem is a combination of psychological factors that can include confidence, assertiveness, self-respect, strong bonds to and/or the respect of other people. Sometimes it includes conceit, arrogance and an attitude of superiority. But what does gender have to do with self-esteem? Gender, whether you are male or female, is a biological circumstance. However, when it comes to self-esteem, not only the biological but the sociological aspects are important. Males, however, tend to have higher self-esteem than women due to the emphasis placed on a women's appearance by society (Cooke 12). Appearance can raise or lower a person's self-esteem. Many societies will place a relative value and thus position in society on how people look. For example, in medieval Europe and ancient China laws dictated what clothing styles and materials people could wear according to their social class (Tafinger). Today, clothing, hairstyles, weight, facial features, etc., are elements in many people's self-esteem. Sometimes people will even go into debt to have plastic surgery done on their faces and bodies to fit better the "ideal" that they think society deems of value. For example, in America the ideal appearance of a woman is to be physically fit, stylish, and apparently young. Until the 1970's a woman's life was to get married and have children. She was happy and comfortable with this way of life; she did not worry about appearance. However, as women began to work they competed for acceptance and respect – and appearance counted. Since those times the number of women unhappy with their appearance has drastically increased, while the number of men has stayed virtually the same according to the study done by Alan Feingold, PhD. (Billie and Chatterjee). Dr. Emily Hancock, a psychologist in Berkeley California has discovered through various studies that self-esteem in girls peaked at the age of 9,...
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added: 11/11/2011
We usually begin developing our self-esteem as young children. Preference for physical attractiveness begins at infancy. During our preschool years, children have cultural ideas of physical beauty due to the media and social interactions with peers. Early developing girls have less positive body images than boys, which greatly contributes to self-esteem. Boys however, are the opposite. If they mature early, they are taller, stronger, etc., and have a better self-esteem. Both boys and girls that are perceived as less attractive usually have a lower self-esteem. Low self-esteem in adolescence is linked primarily to appearance and peers. If a certain individual or group of peers fail to include a specific person, often times that person is left feeling unimportant, ugly, fat, or just not good enough. When such feelings are constant many problems can arise. In extreme cases, suicide, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and self-mutilation can appear (McKauley, 1999). In this paper, I will discuss several factors that contribute to the low self-esteem in adolescent females. Webster¡¦s dictionary defines self-esteem as "an objective respect for or favorable impression of oneself. This simply means how you feel about yourself. Dr. Nathan Foster states that ¡§Self-esteem is the experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life, and of being worthy of happiness¡¨ (McKauley, 1999). Media Roles in...
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added: 01/26/2012
Abstract: There are many topics to choose from when researching adolescence. There are three particular topics that I have done some in depth research of pertaining to adolescence. These topics are as follows: homosexuality, eating disorders, and peer pressure. Upon doing my research I found that although adolescents are faced with many different problems, these three tend to have a major impact on self-esteem. This issue is one of importance to me as I suffered from very poor self-esteem throughout my adolescence and am just now beginning to overcome it. Upon researching these subjects, I came to the conclusion that the majority of my own self-esteem issues stemmed from issues of peer pressure and negative body image. You will see in my discussion of these topics how they can relate to self-esteem issues in adolescence. Sexuality in today's society is viewed mostly as being exclusively heterosexual or homosexual in nature. To adolescence, this can sometimes be confusing as there is much adolescence that has the urge to experiment with a same sex relationship although they have heterosexual leanings. Experimentation throughout adolescence is perfectly normal and in all honesty, expected. Although adult's homosexuality has been studied to a great extent, there is not a wealth of information regarding adolescent homosexuality. For the typical homosexual, adolescence is the time of "coming out" (Santrock, 2001). This coming out process is one that can put a ton of emotional stress on the adolescent that is considering doing so. There are many people (that because of the stigma that society has attached to being homosexual) will repress their natural feelings and desires and will avoid their sexuality by claiming "straightness" and attractions to the opposite sex to their friends (Santrock, 2001). Another huge concern among homosexual adolescence is parental acceptance. "…studies report that gay and lesbian youth...
pages: 7 (words: 1685)
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added: 08/07/2011
There are some theories that suggest motivation is thoughtful and rational decision-like process. One of the major theories from this type of approach is expectancy theory (e.g., Vroom, 1964). Expectancy theory basically says that people choose their behaviors based on the subjective estimation that such behaviors lead to the valued outcomes. Vroom’s valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory (VIE theory) states that there are three main components that affect human motivation. Valence is the degree in which the outcome the person will have is valuable for him/her. Instrumentality represents the degree in which the first outcome (e.g., performance) leads to the final valued outcome. Expectancy refers to the subjective probability that a certain effort or behavior leads to the first outcome or performance. VIE theory suggests that the multipricative function of valence, instrumentality and expectancy represents motivational force, which predicts a person’s choice (e.g., goal choice).
As described above, expectancy theory is a very rational approach to motivation. The strength of this approach is that it predicts a person’s choice (e.g., such as occupational choice) well and is predictive if the task is fairly simple and easy for the estimation of VIE. However, the weakness of this theory is that its predictive power might be low for complex tasks, uncertain environment, and so on. Meta-analysis shows that the multiplied VIE factors doesn’t explain human motivation better than each independent component alone (VanElde & Thealy, 1996).
Goal setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990) also includes some thoughtful, rational process of motivation. The major finding of goal setting research is that difficult, specific goals lead to high performance. Mitchell et al. (2000) suggest that there are direct and indirect effects of goal setting. Direct effect of goal setting is that goals stimulate arousal, attention and direction, and intensity and persistence. This might rather automatic process than thoughtful process....
pages: 7 (words: 1673)
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added: 04/29/2011
In the novel 'Came back to show you I could fly' both the main characters prove that facing challenges have/has many benefits for the individual/s. By facing challenges self esteem and confidence is boosted, and an end result of overall happiness and well being is achieved. However, it takes a lot to overcome fears and anxiety to achieve confidence and often heartache and pain comes before overall happiness. Facing a challenge often results in a definite increase in self-esteem and a boost of confidence. In the book 'Came back to show you I could fly' the eleven-year-old boy Seymour shows this continually. He makes friends with the wild Angie. Angie is a challenge to deal with. She insists they go out or do wild things often against the reserved Seymours better judgement. He has already been forbidden from going out and yet he goes, constantly worrying and fretting about rules and regulations. This however changes throughout the book, a different Seymour emerges a more fearless unafraid to stand up for himself Seymour. By facing the challenge of Angie and leaving the house Seymour gains confidence in himself. Not only that but through the book as his friendship with Angie grows so does his self-esteem. Before, he could never make friends, now he has this wonderful person who wants to be his friend and listen to what he has to say. Therefore by taking up the challenge of working for a friendship with Angie he is given a friend who tells him he is interesting and who likes to be around him. His self esteem soars. On the other hand, to actually disobey the rule of not leaving the house took a lot. Seymour's anxiety and panic kicked in. His decision to leave the house was automatically regretted. Not only that he also had...
pages: 3 (words: 816)
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added: 09/30/2011
The controversial American History X is an excellent film directed by Tony Faye starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. This film chronicles the behavior of a ex-nazi skinhead named Derek Vinyard (Ed Norton), the events encompassing his incarceration, and the effects of his life on his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) who idolizes him. The film begins with Derek violently murdering two black men that are trying to break into his car and home. The murder is the event that sends him to prison and forces him to reflect on his life. Prison is also the point of self-disclosure. The self-disclosure manifests itself in the form of Derek's prison flashbacks. He discloses this information to his brother in order to explain why racism and prejudice is wrong. We also learn that Derek was put on this path to hate by his father, and this hate was accentuated by his father's death/murder while carrying out his duties on the job as a fireman. We also learn that he mentored a local white supremacist named Cameron that groomed Derek to lead a large number of other skinheads. While in prison he is put on the path to enlightenment ironically by two black men. One of them is a former high school professor (Avery Brooks) that Derek respected, and the other is a fellow inmate that befriends him. He is then released from prison to find his family living in less than satisfactory conditions and Danny heading in the same direction as Derek once was. Danny says he will be just like Derek, which is his self-fulfilling prophecy, and accomplishes this, only the outcome is worse. Derek's goal now is to save Danny's future by telling him the errors of his past. However, he is a day too late because some of Danny's...
pages: 4 (words: 1094)
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added: 10/07/2011
Languages, colors, cultures and also the way one behaves may differ from one nation to another. Yet, each and every one of us living on the surface of this planet have several things in common. One of these similarities is that we all have a way of regarding our own self. It is believed that a large amount of individuals feel very good about themselves. Nevertheless, from time to time even the best of us get a dose of negative emotions. Very heartbreaking stories about self dislike were told by many depressed teenagers and older people. What are the causes of this kind of low self esteem and how can one person get solutions to outcome them? Self Esteem is defined as confidence in your own merit as an individual#. Such concepts as self-esteem and self-image have been regarded by some social psychologists as useful, while others have regarded them as unnecessary. There is a considerable amount of research on such topics but it would be very difficult to find the exact definition because volumes have been written about self esteem. Definitions given in self esteem literature run a yard long. But after cutting through all the scientific words, the question of self-esteem really centers down to something quite simple: How do a person feels about hisherself? If the person feels good about himherself, they have a high self-esteem. If they feel bad about himherself, they have a low self esteem. Since low self esteem is a worst problem than the higher one, let's examine it to find some solution by investigating a number of low self esteem causes and personal cases. Individuals with truly high self esteem feel good about themselves and continue believing in themselves regardless of what others think of them. Some people feel good about themselves...
pages: 9 (words: 2362)
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added: 10/15/2011