Type Twos are always about others, they are emphatic and people pleasing. They are friendly and warm hearted and willing to self-sacrifice for others. However, they can then forget about their own needs and not look after one’s self, and sometimes struggle with feelings of possessiveness. As I have explained previous with two the idea behind the piece as to represent the empathy of a two and giving away a part of themselves to help another.
Instead of focusing on trying to find a concept which fit all the enneagrams at once I decided to take one of the type, Two, and try paint my interpretation of it without the connection to the others.
The lines from the song Two, by Sleeping at Last was very important for me in the development of this painting,
‘It’s okay if you can’t catch your breath
You can take the oxygen straight out of my own chest’
To listen to the song on YouTube follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrDzd4ufypE
The idea of giving away yourself, to help others without thought for your own needs resonated and to me felt the most important part of the personality. While creating this painting I realised I couldn’t be all encompassing in my paintings, as it would be impossible to capture everything without it become muddled and complicated. Therefore I picked a certain element and focus on that.
The painting symbolises this idea of giving your own oxygen away. The character is trying to help the bird, in my mind heal it. The faded oxygen lines around the women in contrast to the heavy bold and vibrant lines around the bird is me trying to symbolise this, her giving away a part of herself to help another. I didn’t want to include another character as it would get confusing to which person I was referring to with the personality type, and bird fitted well.
