Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Happiness Group Journal | Page 18

room, the items are much larger
than the person who stands in the
midst of it- the viewer might pity
or feel sorrow for the small person
who is isolated in the darkened
room. We put the person in the
room to represent the pressure of
society and how its expectations
put a pressure on us to work
towards that next promotion, a
test grade, or a more successful
future that is never truly defined.
This was the central reasoning for
having the person shrink, to visu-
ally represent the extent stress can
have on us while we are
trying to attain our happiness.
As the person shrank, the
possibility came up of it being
able to stand on one of the calen-
dar dates laid out on the floor.
The viewer would see a disconnect
between the person and its sur-
roundings, how small the person is
and how quickly that person
could be
swallowed up by the work and
isolated from the
outside world. In this case, the
work and responsibilities pile up
higher and higher while the per-
son shrinks and flounders at the
bottom of the pile unable to climb
up the mountain that only grows.
As the person stands on the calen-
dar, the weeks and the tasks to do
add up and become overwhelm-
ing
looking forward in time. The
undertaking appear ominously
frightening that the person can
not even look at its own feet and
focus on the day that they are in.
They are unable to focus on the
good parts of its day and its
chance to turn back to the light of
the doorway. The
person’s main purpose in being in
the piece of art is to show the
shrinking, disheartening feeling
the viewer might feel when faced
with the daunting tasks laid out
before them by society.
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