I'm using art to improve my emotional vocabulary by connecting emotions with cues like colors, flowers, and sentiments.

I began this journey after taking the MSCEIT test, where I learned that I excel in emotional reasoning but found there was room to grow in understanding more complex emotions.

I aim to better recognize complex emotions by using this visual language more intentionally in my artwork.

This design and visual thinking exercise was inspired by Brené Brown’s "Atlas of the Heart." Based on her research, I developed a bespoke visual language with 13 color palettes representing 87 emotions with 11 unique attributes that visually define each emotion.

The Color Palettes

The first step was to develop the palettes as a visual reference. While only five of the 11 attributes are shown below, the remaining six are indicated in attribute number found at the bottom of each emotion panel.

Six Remaining Attributes

With the palettes visualized, I've begun to explore the six remaining attributes in the absence of color and emotion first. By using redacted journal entries I can explore how the layout and spaces between words leave behind a unique emotional "frequency." Here are some studies I've shared:

More studies can be found on Rodeo: https://rodeo.club/@epr/posts