Week 4:
I watched a video about Louise Bourgeois.
For Louise, I feel sad for her childhood. She has a traumatic child which her mother passed away when she was 22, and her father was unfaithful, she had a fear of abandonment. For, childhood is the fundamental foundation upon which a person’s character and core values are built. If I were her, I could not overcome that and even kill myself, I could collapse and lock myself away from the world and everything around me. For her artwork, the spider represents her mother, a mother who is both a protector and a repairer, especially I think it showed her fear of her childhood. Bourgeois was inspired by trauma, memory, family relationships, and the unconscious mind. These themes are universal. Many artists find inspiration in exploring personal pain, loss, and the complexity of human connections. This makes me feel that exploring pain helps to reveal personal emotions and forms the basis of who I am today.
Then I watched a video of Ted talk in class, after that I watched 2 videos (how Ed Sheeran and his team coming up ideas for new songs, and David Choe’s Artistic Journey). After that, I had to write reflection of those videos.
During my learning process, I watched three videos that offer a roadmap for personal and professional growth. The journey begins with Dr. Ivan Joseph’s TED Talk, which defines self-confidence as a trainable skill developed through repetition and positive self-talk rather than an innate talent. Ed Sheeran’s pure excitement upon discovering new linguistic nuances made me realize that creativity is a form of joy. The third video features David Choe, a rebellious graffiti artist who underwent a profound spiritual awakening after being incarcerated in Japan.
After watching the videos, I felt a great deal of admiration for them. I felt relieved to hear Dr. Ivan Joseph affirm that confidence is not innate. This helped me relieve the pressure of having to be already good and began to believe in the value of hard work. Ed Sheeran’s enthusiasm for discovering new words made me realize that creativity is a pure joy. I was surprised by David Choe’s transformation, and the fact that he used soy sauce to draw in prison was fascinating.
The positive takeaway I took was the connection between skill and spirit. Dr. Joseph provided a practical theoretical framework for self-improvement, while Ed Sheeran and David Choe are living examples of applying that confidence to art. However, one challenge is maintaining persistence in the face of repeated failures, like how Choe was rejected by galleries or how J.K. Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers. The biggest lesson is that failure isn’t the end, but part of the learning process.
Connecting the videos, I realized that confidence leads to experimentation, and that experimentation leads to growth. Without confidence, Ed Sheeran would not have dared to experiment with a foreign culture like Persia for fear of making mistakes. Without perseverance, David Choe would have given up when he was an ostracized street artist. And these two are proof of what Dr. Ivan Joseph conveyed. In particular, Dr. Joseph’s concept of self-talk clearly explains David Choe’s transformation. In prison, Choe shifted his mindset from meaningless rebellion to a desire to create something valuable and meaningful. This is what I find fascinating.
Through these three videos, I realized that I am often too hard on myself and sometimes I force myself to persevere in a toxic way. I learned that self-confidence is a skill that needs to be practiced daily through repetition. Creativity doesn’t necessarily have to be something grand; sometimes it is just curiosity to learn a new word. Most importantly, I understand that every experience, even painful mistakes, can become valuable material for growth if we know how to respond and adjust our thinking.
Through these three videos, I will create action plans to motivate myself in my learning and self-improvement process. I will build a list of self-affirmations and read it every morning in front of the mirror to eliminate negative thoughts about my abilities, just like Ivan Joseph suggested. When starting a new skill, I will commit to practicing it at least 100 times before judging whether I am skilled or not, in parallel experimentation always involves mistakes. Accepting and changing after those mistakes is essential.
Phuong Vi Nguyen 