[NeedsNewNameNow]

1) What is your MBTI preference?

INTP

2) Why is art appealing to you? What initially got you interested in art?

Not really sure. I've drawn for as long as I can remember. I find the creation process appealing.

3) Why do you create? Maybe to express emotion, become competent or to have mastery. Maybe you just because you feel the need to create or want to make a social statement. Perhaps you like the tangible end result. Basically, what is your motivation?



The need to create, the feeling of accomplishment. Making something that other people admire.

4) What part/parts of the creation process do you dislike most?

The fear of fouling up a work in process, getting an initial idea.

5) Do you think the way you create in any way correlates to your MBTI?

I think so. I can't identify with the way some artists go about creating art, also some of the art that appeals to other types I find appalling

[Kayness]

I think this might be a trait of NxJs in general, perhaps especially Ni doms. A couple of years ago, I remember thinking a lot about lungs and that I thought lungs should rightfully be as much of a powerful symbol that the heart is. Then lo and behold, this album came out:



Florence has been typed as an INFJ.

Other symbol friendly NJs are Leonard Cohen (fire, crucifixes, violins, etc.) and Jorge Luis Borges (books, tigers, mazes, etc.).

Don't forget Tori Amos! She's been typed as an INFJ.

Why do you think lungs should be a symbol as powerful as the heart?

[LookingGlass]

I think this might be a trait of NxJs in general, perhaps especially Ni doms. A couple of years ago, I remember thinking a lot about lungs and that I thought lungs should rightfully be as much of a powerful symbol that the heart is.

Well that's interesting.

[Hastings]

Don't forget Tori Amos! She's been typed as an INFJ.

Is she into symbols as well?

Why do you think lungs should be a symbol as powerful as the heart?

There are a number of good reasons. Of course, I don't think I could say to an average person: aren't lungs beautiful? The person would give me weird looks. But it's really just ignorance, we are taught that hearts are beautiful and that other insides are not.

But to make it clearer, we should look at what the heart means and then compare it to lungs:


The Heart
1. The heart pumps blood to the body's organs and is thusly the driving force to maintain your life. It is also a kind of emotional reactor, it responds to emotional stimuli like love and fear. You can feel that the heart "skips a beat", that it "beats for somebody". It's the engine of your body.
2. Following this, the heart is a symbol for your life power and emotional life. Most of all, it is used as a symbol of love.
3. The actual human heart is not quite as pretty as the heart symbol we use. It's rather an asymmetric, pumping block of muscle.


The Lungs
1. The lungs are part of the respiratory system and handles the flow of oxygen. The lungs contain what you inhale. Like the heart, your breathing patterns changes with emotional stimuli. Before taking on a big task, you might want to "take a deep breath". Experiencing excitement might make you breath faster. There is something intimate with our breathing pattern, like our voice.
2. Following this, the lungs could for example be a symbol for inner balance; having things under control and not being out of breath.
3. The actual lungs are two brown slabs in the center of the chest. But they are at least more easily caricatured than the heart; you can easily draw them as two round-cornered triangles with the short side as the base and the long sides facing outwards.

[walking tourist]

1) What is your MBTI preference?
esfp

2) Why is art appealing to you? What initially got you interested in art?
I like bright colors and form and shape and creating a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object. I have always liked to draw but, when I was in high school, I decided that I was no good at it so I gave it up. About fifteen or so years later, my friend handed me colored pencils and paper and told me to draw a bouquet of cosmos. And so, I got interested in art again.

3) Why do you create? Maybe to express emotion, become competent or to have mastery. Maybe you just because you feel the need to create or want to make a social statement. Perhaps you like the tangible end result. Basically, what is your motivation?
I want to improve my skills and I feel that I need to create something out of nothing (a picture on what was formerly a blank sheet of paper). I truly love the process of drawing or painting. I like the feel of the pencils and the paints. I like mixing the colors. The end result is nice, too, but, for me, it's the process. It's sort of like when I take a long walk. It's the journey, not the destination, that is the wonderful thing for me.

4) What part/parts of the creation process do you dislike most?
Cleaning up the mess.

5) Do you think the way you create in any way correlates to your MBTI?
Probably it does. I'm not sure how. I don't think that I do "manly art," however.

And of course, other ideas/observations welcome.
Doing art has helped to grow as a person. For many years, I believed that I was an ugly person. When I started drawing faces, I learned that there is no such thing as an ugly person. I sat on the bus and looked at people's faces and saw that they were appealing, not appalling, and that I wanted to draw the portraits of so many of the people. My current drawing project is "fall foliage." I have learned that the leaves that look dull and brown and nearly dead are actually full of color. I have been working mainly with colored pencils to draw the leaves and I was surprised by how many colors I had to layer to be able to reproduce the colors of the leaves. I have learned by drawing to see perspective and to see shapes and colors and sizes. One of my art teachers said that the purpose of art lessons is not to learn to draw or paint but to learn how to see.
Before I recommitted myself to art, I was missing so much of the things that were around me, even though I tend to be an observant person. Now I see more and I am looking with the eyes of an artist.
And, as an artist, I am a work in progress.
I am on a great journey of artistic discovery.
It is the voyage, not the destination, that is the key to art and to life.
Thank you for asking these questions.

[Kayness]

Is she into symbols as well?

Yes, in the song China, she uses China in both sense of the word as a metaphor about growing distant from each other in a relationship, because China the country is far away (from the USA), and china, the porcelain because it can show cracks, just like in failing relationships. There's also reference to the Great Wall of China when she was talking about how we 'build walls' around ourselves to protect ourselves. It's very clever word play.

There's also her song Cornflake Girls, where cornflake girls are the superficial, flakey, dime in a dozen type of girls where raisin girls are the rarer ones who have depth to them, because in cereals, raisins are rarer than cornflakes.

there are also more, like Winter, Icicle, Doughnut Song ..etc.

[Mind Swirl]

I have learned that the leaves that look dull and brown and nearly dead are actually full of color. I have been working mainly with colored pencils to draw the leaves and I was surprised by how many colors I had to layer to be able to reproduce the colors of the leaves. I have learned by drawing to see perspective and to see shapes and colors and sizes. One of my art teachers said that the purpose of art lessons is not to learn to draw or paint but to learn how to see.
Before I recommitted myself to art, I was missing so much of the things that were around me, even though I tend to be an observant person. Now I see more and I am looking with the eyes of an artist.

It's amazing how unobservant we can be until we sit and really look something. I had a teacher who was big on trying to get everyone to be more observant of the way things look; dissecting them as you see them in terms of color, light, shadow, and structure. I could easily imagine new ideas, but wasn't that great at observing, remembering, and re-creating objects accurately.

We had to re-create a school logo from memory, only one or two people actually got it right. Funny since everyone saw the logo when they entered the parking lot each day. Looking at things artistically and closely, really stopping and looking at them, is a great exercise.

I'm wondering if a person who favors Si would be good at recalling what things they'd seen in the past and then painting them. I have an ENFP artist friend who was always really great at accurately re-creating things from memory. She'd theoretically use Si more, while I'd use Se.

There's also her song Cornflake Girls, where cornflake girls are the superficial, flakey, dime in a dozen type of girls where raisin girls are the rarer ones who have depth to them, because in cereals, raisins are rarer than cornflakes.

That is a hilarious but accurate analogy!

[walking tourist]

This would explain why I have such trouble drawing things from memory, just from having seen them in the past. My Si is relatively weak. Not totally useless, just weak. So I take photographs... lots and lots of photographs.
Would an SJ artist do well with this? It would come naturally to someone who favors Si, while I would find it almost magical.

I'm wondering if a person who favors Si would be good at recalling what things they'd seen in the past and then painting them. I have an ENFP artist friend who was always really great at accurately re-creating things from memory. She'd theoretically use Si more, while I'd use Se.

[Owfin]

This would explain why I have such trouble drawing things from memory, just from having seen them in the past. My Si is relatively weak. Not totally useless, just weak. So I take photographs... lots and lots of photographs.
Would an SJ artist do well with this? It would come naturally to someone who favors Si, while I would find it almost magical.

I draw terribly from memory or from my head in general. Perhaps it's a case of bad short term memory, which I definitely have. I'm great at photography, and decent at still life.

I think si comes more into play in how I notice little changes in the environment around me. It's amazing how much my backyard changes over a year.

If I was drawing a still life, left for a day, and came back to find something even a smidgen off, I would notice immediately.

[Aelthwyn]

1) What is your MBTI preference?
INFP, but I feel like my art preferences differ a fair ammount from the other INFPs I know

2) Why is art appealing to you? What initially got you interested in art?
I've always been captivated by beautifull images, especially because I didn't live somewhere that I connected with, I felt the world was ugly and blah and uninspiring, so I always sought to find beauty in 2-D pictures since I didn't have it all around me. Also, I sought to create my surroundings and clothing to match my ideals - to make my dreams come to life as they say.

I don't really look for 'meaning' in art as some people do. The meaning for me is the enjoyment of beauty, the inspiration and uplifting experience of seeing something lovely. I'm not interested in symbolism or messages, nor in having intense emotions evoked by art. I don't look to art to make me think or feel - if I want that I'll read a book. I don't exactly seek to be communicated to by the artist.

What I do like is to have my immagination sparked by the subject matter - that is to get story ideas, or ideas for clothing designs - things like that, and to find comfort and delight for my eyes in the colours, lines, ballance, and overall ambiance of the piece. (I'm not just talking gallery art here either, I'm thinking of greeting gards, picturebooks, adds, fashion, architecture, fonts, movie settings, and all kinds of designs). I am particularly drawn to things with a lot of detail which requires minute inspection to take in everything. I like to be drawn in to these details and slowly follow them around the whole thing. More often I don't appreciate something as a whole so much, but I appreciate all the little pieces that went into the whole. I really love curling flowing lines that lead into other things. I also really enjoy colours that have a glowing or translucent quality. And I love things that look photographic or real even if they are depicting unreal-fantasy subjects. I like embellishment on everything and feel that everything ought to be beautifull first and functional seccond. Thus I will endure discomfort or inconvenience for the sake of how I want something to look.

I dislike most asbstract art, usually find surrealism creepy, find minimal or simple things boring, and have an aversion to open or "negative" space.

3) Why do you create? Maybe to express emotion, become competent or to have mastery. Maybe just because you feel the need to create or want to make a social statement. Perhaps you like the tangible end result. Basically, what is your motivation?

Letsee..... I doodle to entertain myself with pretty things while in a boring atmosphere. What I doodle is swirling lines, often creating patterns, fancy lettering, celtic knottwork, little scenes of flowers and mushrooms, historical and fantasy clothing, and occasionally fairies and dragons and fantasy themed things. I don't really think all that much while drawing, it just sort of happens. I don't generally have much of a plan from the outset.

I make costumes and clothing and jewelry because I like to dress unusually and can't generally find the kinds of styles I like, so I have to make them myself. It's a way of living out my inner ideals by creating an outer atmosphere through my clothing that is in harmony with my inner picture of who I am.

I enjoy arranging and decorating because I feel better when I'm in a pretty surrounding that matches my inner ideals. I also seem to have satisfaction from the act of organizing things into an arrangement that feels ballanced and flowing, as in things are related to eachother and in harmony with colours and shapes and themes, etc. I have a horror of unused space and feel driven to arrange things into it. While in one sense I can be pretty messy at home, I really dislike when things are just randomly stuck in places without much thought. Like I'm bothered when I can tell that someone half-heartedly shoved flowers into little bottles and dumped them on each table at the cafe, vs. when someone actually arranged the flowers in each bottle and specifically arranged all the things on the table together. Attention to design in regards to the arrangement of things is important to me and can cause me to either have a feeling of contentment or unrest.

I really enjoy playing with people's hair and creating elaborate styles. My motivation for this seems to be firstly creating an affectionate connection with that person, and seccondly the enjoyment of the inspiration of the moment. As with my drawing, I rarely have a specific plan at the beginning, I enjoy getting into the flow and just seeing where it goes from there.

My main form of art these days is photography. I love it because my eyes are always homing in on the bits of beauty around me, and so I enjoy capturing those bits of pretty grass, flowers, sunlight, etc. so I can look at them later and share them with others. In a way it is like making that piece of the world mine, connecting with it, putting it in my pocket. I love love love beautifull images, and so of course I enjoy flipping through all my pretty photos and being reminding that there is beauty in the world. I feel like my spirit is filled up and renewed by letting my eyes soak in pretty images. It affirms my inner world and sense of self and promotes my overall feeling of optimism, peace, and joy.

I suppose the most accurate assessment of what drives my artistic endeavors is the enjoyment of 'creative flow' and that it is an outflowing of my tastes, an expression of myself. It's not so much an expression of specific moods or ideas of mine, but of my tastes in general. Intricacy, Beauty, Fantasy, Delicacy would be good words to describe my style.

4) What part/parts of the creation process do you dislike most?
hmm.....I dislike when I can't seem to make what my mind sees, dislike repetition of trying over and over to get something to match my intent for it. I tend to get derailed when something goes wrong, and when it goes wrong more than once I get frustrated and angry and tend to give up. I also really don't like when what I'm working with doesn't want to cooperate with my will for it.

When it comes to sewing I seem to have a kind of mind-block against cutting things out. I just can't get myself motivated to lay out the pattern pieces and cut them. I like the actuall sewing, for the most part, once the pieces are cut out and ready (although I'd like it better if I could just immagine it and then have it appear all done). I also dislike ironing. Partly this is because of my mild phobia of hot things, but also it's an interruption of the sewing process having to get up and go over to the ironing board and mess around with that, blech. I'd rather just keep sewing. Perhaps I prefer the sewing part because it feels more like actual progress - like miles covered on the road to to speak. I really hate fighting with fabric that wants to slip and pull while I'm trying to sew it. I hate how slipperying things will keep sliding right off the table, or how stiff/bulky things will keep crowding around the machine and i have to fight to hold them back so I can see what I'm doing. It's exhausting and it feels like a battle/conflict.

I dislike when I feel like my hands are getting dirty and I keep having to wipe them off before doing the next thing. I used to make stamped cards and hate getting glue or ink on my hands and then feeling like I can't touch anything. Same issue happens when I bake.

When making jewelry I dislike the repetativeness of making the same bits over and over in order to link them together. It's boring. I love coming up with the design, but the actual making is less fun. I tend to clench my teeth and end up with a headache with doing any detailed work with my hands. I also really don't like counting out links of chain or beads because I seem to be paranoid of loosing count, and then seccond guess myself and have to start over if I get slightly distracted - which often happens - and it's just a boring pain! But, although I'm really good at eyeballing things, I still like to know for sure that I got it exact, so I count anyways, ug.

5) Do you think the way you create in any way correlates to your MBTI?
Yes I think so. I think Intuition is probably tied to my preference for dwelling most in the immagination stage, the mental design of creating immages in my head alone. I LOVE coming up with ideas, as well as all sorts of variations on the same idea. I tend to have a hard time choosing one direction to go with because I just love all the different options and seem to have more fun generating those ideas than I do actually making something.

When it comes to actually Creating, I tend to set aside all those mental immages and just enjoy the very instantaneous, in the moment, interaction with the design details. As I create, the next detail I want to add wil become apparent, and I just keep building on those details and see how it ends up. I think this reflects the Percieving way of life. Art is like a discovery, seeing it for the first time. Most of the time it's really not so much me imposing my will on something, but the creative possibilities being revealed in the doing of it, almost like it's not me doing it at all. The artwork just happens.

Also probably related to percieving is the need for it to be a fun process. If it's not fun/easy-going I tend to quit. And I can easily put one project on hold indefinately in order to focus on new projects, which may in turn also get set aside. I'm not sure I can really say it's the process or the product I like more, it's sort of neither, and both at the same time.

Also I think it's pretty clearly evidenced in my descriptions above that Fi has a lot to do with my motivation and appreciation of art. It's all about harmony of the inner ideals with the outer world.

I also think that it's very NF to not care so much about function. What matters is the spiritual connection and the essence of the thing, not how it works or what it's purpose is.


And here's a few observations I have of some of my friends
My two NT artist friends seem to be concerned with impoving their ability to get it right, and will work hard and put in a lot of practice to improve their skill in making things look realistic. They value competancy in everything they do, and arts and crafts are no exception. However, they don't go in for the cutesy-floofy arts & crafts so much. They do like illustrating stories and making costumes, and like sci-fi or fantasy themes.

My NF friends are similar to me in many ways, except that they seem to like art to have a bit more meaning than I do, and tend to look for emotion, symbolism, and the idea behind things, rather than just what looks pretty - though they like that stuff too. The one who particularly likes to paint and draw and sew tends to be a lot more sloppy and not really care that much about precision. The idea is the most important thing to her.

My SP husband is all about improving his skill, as well as the satisfaction of being active. He likes cafting more than drawing/painting I think because he likes the functional aspect of things that he makes. He's really interested in how things work, and seems to focus a lot of his thought and energy into making something function 'beautifully'. He still wants things to look good, but at the same time he also appreciates more 'chunky' purely functional designs. He usually won't sacrifice how well something works for looks. He claims that he outcome is the most important for him, but I have a hard time believing it because he 'gets over it' far too quickly. Almost as soon as he's done making this most fabulous thing in the world he's suddenly disillusioned with the quality of his work and is already plotting a better version. Nothing really seems to be an end product, just another step on the endless road of improvement. Taste-wise he is drawn to fantasy, steampunk, and historical styles, and has a very similar eye for things to my own, although he can do with less details than me.

My SJ mother enjoys painting, sewing, and scrapbooking, but she rarely gets around to these things because she feels that they a frivilous and not obligations. When she does do artistic things she tends to approach them like a chemical formula. She likes to have clear step by step instructions and then just follows those. Although she is capable of improvising and coming up with her own designs she doesn't seem to enjoy doing that as much. She likes plugging in the right pieces to acheive a pre-determined goal. For her it's definatley more about the end product which she will use and cherish for years after. The process is just the means of getting to the end, and it doesn't have to be fun.