The enthusiast

“When Everything Feels Heavy, I've Learned to Travel Light” is my representation of Enneagram Sevens. The ideas that I wanted to communicate through Seven from the beginning were their spontaneity, their desire to move on to the next big adventure, and their fun-loving attitude. The elements of art that I knew I had to use were color, space, and texture. Color represents fun, space represents the depth that is often overlooked within Sevens, and texture provides more visual interest since Sevens are known to be bored easily.

I decided for my medium to be a collage to emphasize the fact that Sevens are always doing or trying something new, and they struggle to be content with what they have. They have a deep hunger within them to seek out the next, best, most exciting experience out there, and the medium of collage represents this well because there are so many new pieces to visually explore.

I used vintage maps and postcards for the background to emphasize Seven's adventurous spirit, and their stereotypical desire to travel. After several layers of these maps and postcards, I was ready to bring in the color. Since I had used vintage elements to create the background I wanted to use something that resembled youth in the foreground since Sevens have this mentality of living like they are forever young by always seeking out new experiences to distract themselves from the fact that they are one day going to grow up and have to face reality. I chose to use Crayola children’s paint to tie in this youthful aspect, and I continued alternating these layers to create depth and textures. The old maps and postcards are in the background to further emphasize the looming reality of having to grow up, and the paint being on top represents the ways that Sevens try to ignore or distract themselves from this reality.

Some other hidden side notes are that throughout the piece there are tiny planes on the maps to show them moving on to the next thing, and there is the word “new” in the bottom left corner to hint at their desire for new experiences. There is also a tie to my Enneagram Five piece in the bottom right corner. Since I used planets for my Five piece, I thought it would be fitting to have this Earth from a map that I found because Sevens go to Fives in growth, and I layered green over this because Fives are represented by the color green. Each of the colors used reflects a tie to one of the types associated with Sevens. Yellow represents Six which ties in Seven’s wing Six, red represents Eight to tie in that wing, green, as previously stated represents Five, and finally, orange represents Seven.

I chose the lyric “when everything feels heavy, I’ve learned to travel light” because I feel that my piece reflects this idea so well. The heaviness is the realities and the negative emotions that Sevens try to avoid, and traveling light is represented by the planes, maps, and postcards. I hope that through my Seven piece, others can see what fun and exciting things that Sevens have to offer. I also hope that Sevens feel seen in their struggles to address reality, but more so I want them to know that we are so appreciative of the ways that they help us to find the silver lining through their optimism and joy.