The discovery of my self and art : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

An awareness of one's self is crucial at this point in one's life with graduation from college fast approaching. In order to be able to act in the world, people must be conscious of who they are and what they want out of life. For me, the process of self-analysis seemed rather compact over the span of only four years, and came to a head in this semester, my final months as a student. Sparked into curiosity by peers and exposure to different belief systems, and heavily influenced by authors such as Hermann Hesse, Jack London, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the results of my searches are explained within this paper. Spirituality receives a lot of attention, since my developed understanding of it ties into art. As a painting major, art is what drives me; it is my purpose and my lifestyle in the future will reflect that through the choices I plan to make. Included in this thesis is my senior painting project which was inspired by this recent development of my self. Images of the resulting artwork, along with explanations of the pieces, and a description of what art means to me are a large part of this retelling of my inner and artistic discoveries.