The Importance of Self-Expression

“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.”-Ansel Adams.

Self-expression is the right and ability to express your thoughts, feelings, personality, opinions and more in different ways, mediums and formats. As mentioned by Ansel Adams, no one can tell you how you have to feel about something or how to express yourself, is a right given to us at birth and is the purest way to communicate who we are and what we feel to the world the surrounds us; just as told by Adams, we also should encouraged each other to find the ways to express ourselves and build confidence in our voices and talents.

Self-expression involves everything about a person, many people around the world have talked about this subject, like Mitchell Green, a philosophy professor who has studied, among other subjects, the philosophy of the mind, in his book Self-expression he tells us that “We express ourselves in many ways: through tone of voice, posture, the face, word, and, in more subtle cases, paint, music, sculpture, and other forms of art.” (pg. 1), with this quote it is easy to see and say that self-expression is much more than what meets the eye, it encompasses everything about a person, their way of talking, moving, what they create, who we are and where we come from.

Self-expression is how you portray yourself to the world and how the world perceives you, it is not only what you say or do, it’s also how you behave, the little subtle ways we communicate including our body language. But self-expression is not only positive, sometimes it is an expression of the psychological parts of ourselves, such as tragedias and trauma. Having said that, what does self-expression have to do with art? Well, in my opinion, everything. You see, as Green says, art is just another way to express yourself, another way to show the world who you are. But I must say, I disagree with Green in it being subtle, art is a huge part of people and their lives, past, present and future.

Through history, we have seen all over the world how art has impacted and influenced every part of our lives; it’s been the representation of day-to-day life, the presentation of great leaders, the depiction of emotions and demons plaguing an artist or the cruel and crude reality of the events they had to live with daily, we see self-expression everywhere. When talking about the psychological aspect, we can talk about Francisco de Goya’s  painting Saturn devouring his son, a painting for him as it was never supposed to see the light, made in a period of his life in which he exile himself, how can we look at this painting and not think of his struggles with his illness that cause deafness and him to slowly go mad. Let’s look at the art produced by Mariana Abramovic, a contemporary artist whose work explores the audience relationship with the artist, the limitations of the body and possibilities of the mind, her work is an active performance of who she is, her work “Rhythm 0” is the one that comes to mind when talking about self-expression as its objective was to allow the audience to use different object that range from feathers to knives on the artist’s body, being, in my opinion, the ultimate show of who we are and what we will do when given free range.

We could mention so many different paintings, sculptures, happenings, performances, films, movies, books and so many more to illustrate the point, yet I feel that when reading these lines, you will already have a piece in mind that will encompass self-expression, so why not share it? Our favorite books, quotes, movies, art and more are a reflection of us, just as much as the pieces we don’t like.

In conclusion, self-expression is important because it is a representation of yourself, who you are, what you’ve been through, where you come from and so much more. And your art is part of that, what you portray on  paper, painting, film making, acting and more, is a reflection of you, is how people get to know you in a more profound way because art is our escape, a way to be who you are without hiding, a way to let out everything that makes you suffer, that brings you joy, something you find difficult to say or just day-to-day life, all of them plagued with self-expression and self-discovery. 

How do you choose to express yourself?

Written by: Ximena Quintana

Edited by: Laila El Kadry

References 

• Green, M. (2007). Self-expression. Clarendon Press Oxford.