Lenita PS Brainstorming

Genuine attitude towards life

You're not like people who fake their personalities or people who lie to fit in, you aren't concerned about that

You don't hide your advice -- some people tell you that you can always tell the truth. Some people would say it is a shortcoming, but it can also be good because when your friends have difficulties, you can help them to figure out what the real situation is/help them sort out their problems

Example: your friend was told by another girl that her best friend from primary school thinks she's weird and doesn't like her any more, so she became very sad, but the problem wasn't about her or the opinion of the friend, really it was about the person who told her and their conflicts. You helped her to figure out that her best friend didn't actually think this

Traditional Chinese Painting

You have practiced it for two years, and you think it's interesting as a form of art because it provides a portrait of people and the natural world with imagination

Your teacher never limited your imagination about painting, he just encouraged you. He also would point out that some of the paintings had inaccurate proportions, and he taught you about how to respect nature to improve your paintings (straight vs. curvy lines) -- things just happen in their natural way and you cannot twist them to make them seem beautiful in your painting

Respecting nature from an artistic standpoint: art doesn't need to be against science or reality, they are actually hthe same thing in your perspective. You also do traditional writing -- your experience with these Chinese traditional arts: all the different inks, brushes, papers, etc. all came from nature -- famous paintings show a huge view of nature, mountains. They get their dyes from nature too, which gives a great natural, realistic effect to the painting.

A main theme of traditional art is nature

If you want to paint something very impressive, you either go against nature or you go with nature -- against nature happens more in western art, but in Chinese art they go with nature, which reveals a philosophy of ancient China. Difference between Western and Chinese artwork: Chinese paintings focus more on the strokes that you paint, you have an outline in your mind of the strokes that you're going to paint and focus on a broader view of the paintings. You can paint so much -- mountains, trees, flowers, etc. only with simple strokes

You have been doing Chinese calligraphy for as long as you can remember -- it's something you find unique and beautiful. There's another girl in your class who does it as well and you find her artworks amazing, and decided to learn more about it

Teacher who taught you calligraphy recommended you to go to another teacher to learn at a company that teaches these traditional courses. In middle school you saw other students learning traditional arts, and it was easy for you to learn because of your basis from calligraphy in how to use the brushes.

Find it a very "free" form of art -- teacher sees the advantages of each artwork. He really likes the student's art, since they are active -- you can sense the spirit of the artwork

This theme of traditional art has influenced your view of Psychology -- psych has its own philosphy, it is not all about science, but the "art of people" -- what psychologists do, is you make experiments on people but you have to apply all of your findings from them to the larger human society. Psych is not about making a better society, it is about making better individuals who will then form better societies

Your experience of this: your classmate and you attended CTB competition, and you came out with some research about people's bias about depression. You think it's important because from your research you found that people think depression patients are too fragile, but according to your experience and other experience, it's not due to being fragile, but rather there are other reasons that are making them that way, like their traumas from abuse or other stressful things that have freaked them out. So you and your classmates wrote about how families can help teenagers to get through this -- you are planning to show some art galleries online, because artwork actually expresses people's feelings. If you can influence people to think that these patients may have a better life and could be more active about getting help, you can save lives

Teacher also taught you that you have to be very active with your imagination. you have to have real experiences to paint real things. Painting combines imagination and science/reality

the depression patients can express their emotions through art, and most of their works are dark and depressing. Some artwork, such as The Garden of Earthly Delights, express twist pictures and emotions about the humanity, which makes me feel the imagination and terror of my heart. But in other artworks, such as the Thousands miles of mountains and rivers, show the beauty of nature and the inner peace of human, which makes me feel peaceful and the purity makes me feel pleasant and satisfied.

You got artworks from pictures online, and asked authors for copyright permission. Asked your teammates and they are busy, so not sure whether the online art gallery can be continued.

Garden of Earthly Delights -- learned about it from art course in school. Very impressive because it connects all of the 3 worlds together (heaven, real world, hell) -- reminds you of the divine comedy, because you read the divine comedy when you were very young, and it impressed you with its descriptions of "underground punishment" and its rich imaginations. This artwork makes all of your imaginations from your childhood come true.

Thousands Miles of Mountains and Rivers -- ancient artwork from Song Dynasty in China -- people don't know who painted it, but some people think it was an 18 year old boy, so it is considered a genius painting, which is why it is legendary -- the dyes the painter uses are impressive, all were collected from rocks/plants in nature. This artwork started a new form of artwork in China -- green and blue colors highlighted, and the pigments come from natural sources which make the mountains and rivers seem even more real. You feel like you can understand how the painter felt and thought because you knew his methods

"Garden" is about the unconscious part of the human mind, and about dreams and deep thoughts that people have -- really shows people's inner thoughts and emotions. Related to Freud's studies of how people work

"Thousand Miles" -- you read a book about a branch of psychology called "aesthetic psychology" that this painting reminds you of. Saw the book at your mom's friend's house, not sure which particular aspect of psych that you're interested in

Different way to interpret people's perspectives/phenomenons

The expression of emotions in the artwork is what interests you -- what you do somehow reflects what you think

Why is Art a good way to see this?

Because everyone can paint. There are no rules to painting. If you write something, you need to have grammar, appropriate words, but in art, there's a direct impact on people's eyes which is somehow more striking -- all the different shapes/colors/etc can reflect what the artists think

You once saw the paintings of a DID patient -- what he draws is very dark, ex. a doll hanging itself -- you don't have a knowledge of the painting beforehand, but once you put it down people can feel the same feelings you are -- there's no need for any logic

Discovered this idea when you first took the traditional painting class -- you first took calligraphy, then did art -- in calligraphy, you had to stricly follow what the original author did, just like you are copying other's work -- so it's not so interesting -- but in the art class, the teacher may set a topic for you, but you can express it in your own way -- in the first class, you were told to paint a monkey, but everyone ended up with very different monkeys, with different spirits, facial expressions, gestures -- this really reflects what kind of people the artists are. For example, your teacher says she is very sensitive about all the strokes she paints, so she is probably a sensitive person emotionally

Letter to your Parents & Art Teacher

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  1. Your experience with art & psychology from the start, so the first time in painting class - when you were very little, you also took a watercolor painting class, the first time you took a painting class
  1. Your feelings towards art -- you feel that it is a free expression of yourself, there's no boundaries between your feelings and your paintings
  1. Start with the first class of traditional painting, and the school's class of western painting, when you saw the Garden of Earthly Delights, and how you are attracted to this specific painting and how psychological knowledge can explain your feelings about it and traditional chinese painting
  1. Unconsciousness of people's feelings -- things that you don't notice but are still here in your mind. Also, people's attraction to beauty that paintings express
  1. You can explain some of the elements in your paintings/other paintings. Also, as a way out of your feelings, you recognize your emotions and express it by painting