Saving Faces through Creative Facework

As social creatures, we constantly exert efforts in establishing, nurturing, and defending our image and stature by taking steps to ensure that we are seen in a positive light. People in all cultures try to preserve, negotiate, and defend face mainly to avoid being embarrassed. It is the power of self-love that drives our self-preservative behavior, the main occupation of our ego.

Being cautious about what we do and/or say and how it appears to others is acceptable when practiced in moderation as this is how we function within society and thus maintain its norms. Limited amount of "unpleasant" feelings, such as anxiety, is both normal and desirable. When taken to an excessive degree, however, face-work could enervate and exhaust us. Mental activity directed towards assumptions of how others perceive us involves constant expenditure of psychic energy. Irrationally, some of us tend to place disproportionate importance on what impressions we make on others. Striving for others' approval could be means to an end but it should never be the end itself. Being tightly caught up in the fibers of society and its norms, we misunderstand and misrepresent our own selves. This social trap exacerbates our inclination towards being overly wary about what image we project and how we believe to be perceived thus paralyzing our thinking and affecting our actions. The topic of this discussion is rooted in finding the objective compromise between who we are, how we want to be seen, and what society expects from us. Good start would be to become no one and anyone, to shake off the shackles that reminds us who we are, who others think we are. [TO BE CONTINUED]

Painting faces is a process that takes place at stages, layer by layer, equivalent to what is postulated by the social penetration theory. First we start by sketching the outlines of the face itself.

The first, superficial layer of color gives the face its overall feel and appearance. The early stage of self-disclosure in interpersonal communication is defined by small talk on apparent topics. We try to present a respectable front that reveals discretely some of what we consider our most socially-acceptable and socially-reputable characteristics.