Color Theory Final Paper

During the course, Color Theory, our class has learned about many aspects of the concept of identity in the creative process. Google defines identity as the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. There is also identity in the creative process. We look at art as being the image definition of an individual or society. There are two ways of thinking about the way you can make a decision. You can either make it consciously or unconsciously. Unconscious means the part of the mind that is inaccessible to the conscious mind but that affects behavior and emotions. Conscious means being aware of and responding to one's surroundings. Everyone in society either make conscious or unconscious decisions during the thinking process. Artists even make these decisions in their paintings. Self portraits are one of the many pieces artists use as a symbol of identity. The can be easily defining the image or the artist themselves. Two conclusions have seem to arise from this theory of self portraits being an identity: The process of creative self expression uniquely defines the “I” of the artist and in the most important aspects of the creative process, the “I” is not even involved.

One of the main questions a person can keep asking themselves is where do creative ideas come from? Ideas come from observation of nature, reflection of life, and experimentation of life. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. When we combine these three means and use intelligence and reasoning in different combination ideas come in our thoughts. Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the knowledge processed in mind analyzing existing ideas or concepts. Sometimes most of ideas tend to come from someone else’s ideas. We use the opinions of our peers to contruct our final decision of our artwork. Creative ideas usually tend to come from either the conscious or unconscious mind. Generally an artist can either paint using their conscious mind or their unconscious mind. Unconscious means the part of the mind that is inaccessible to the conscious mind but that affects behavior and emotions. Conscious means being aware of and responding to one's surroundings. Everyone in society either make conscious or unconscious decisions during the thinking process. Artists even make these decisions in their paintings. In my opinion, most of the more exciting and interesting pieces of art are created using the unconscious. The unconscious mind is like a locked box where no one can enter, and artist usually release their inner ambitions and the secrets in their locked box through their artwork so their artwork can portray meaning. Other artists usually use the consiouc minds while they are creating their artwork. These pieces are still very interesting but they lack the meaning of an artist with a unconsious mind because their in no secret hidden message in the pieces. Arist, Roger Shimomura has a lot of hidden messages in his pieces but his overall message of his pieces are the stereotypes in America about Asian Culture. Other artwork in the National Portrait Gallery, of all of the presidents, were used showing a conscious mind because there is no meaning in the artwork, because it is about someone else. An artist who creates an image of someone else most likely does not have an intended hidden message because the artist is not the subject of the painting but the artist is just painting a mere image of the person who they are painting. An artist who paints someone who they knew for quite some time can have more meaning towards their paintings.
Identity can be portrayed by: portraiture, creative self expression, and creative decision making. Portraiture means the expression of creating art. Creative self expression means the appearance of one’s individuality in the art world. Creative decision making means the artistic process of which you conclude to a final decision. These approaches are used in defing identity in the creative process. The artist Roger Shimomura incorporated himself in all of hi pieces. In his piece “American Hello Kitty”, Shimomura painted the well known character, Hello Kitty. It is noticeable that he incorporated his face onto the kitty. Shimomura created work that reflects the racist stereotypes of Asian Americans. He also brings humor to art while he is showing his identity throughout his pieces. Shimomura seems to be using his creative mind while he was making this piece because it hows a hidden message about how he feels about stereotypes towards Asian Americans. In his portraiture, he uses a cartoon idea. His self expression shows because we can easily see himself throughout the piece. During the second museum visit, we went to a showroom of the presidents of the United States. These pieces did not show the identity of the painters, but the identities of the people who were in the paintings. Gilbert Stuart, who drew George Washington, captured the image of America’s first president. He, as an artist does not incorporate himself in the painting at all. As an artist you can portray yourself or your subject matter in the piece.
In conclusion, the process of creative self expression defines the artist themselves or it the piece of art does not need to identify the artist at all. Throughout this course, we have learned a lot about identity and who we are and where are ideas come from. Identity is of who and what we are. Our creative ideas can be derived from many places including our surroundings. We are what we think we are. Even though we might think that our society is what makes us who we think we are. We all have an unconscious mind to capture our inner thoughts which we reveal in our art pieces secretively.