Proposal

For my senior seminar project I will be creating a large mural based on teenage depression as a part of the creative/performing arts option. I will be working both in school and at home in creating the actual mural and receiving help from Mark Kobasz while in school. As I obtain responses to my prompt asking for one or two sentences about what they (the students) are bottling up, anonymously, I’ll be able to tie in a theme about teenage depression to my mural. Because I have a study hall D block every other day, I’ll be working in the art room to complete my project, giving me around two to three hours of work every week in school. On day two, I’ll be taking the actual dried product home to work on some more. I’m hoping to complete about five hours of work on the mural every week. The mural is going to be mixed media incorporating products such as gesso, Venetian plaster, and acrylic paint in the background and acrylic paint, pastels, wax, and charcoal in the foreground. I’m estimating this will take around 40-50 hours to complete, which shouldn’t be too complicated to do with this schedule.

As for the research part of my project I’ll be studying the topic of teenage depression based around the question, “what are the signs and symptoms of teenage depression and how can we ensure that teenagers suffering from depression are ensured the help they need?”. I chose this actual topic because I feel as though it’s something people should be informed about, and something teenagers, parents, and teachers have little to no knowledge of. I haven’t had much prior experience to this topic other than being exposed to it socially, internally and externally. I think the viewers of my senior seminar project will be able to gain a fuller understanding by watching my presentation because they’ll be able to view their peers in a different way and even help to prevent teenage depression. I have found three great resources for my project through the library and online. Mrs. Valenza helped me in finding Teen Guides: Living with Depression which is a Facts on File resource and Runaway Train: Youth with Emotional Disturbance. Both are extensive studies on teenage and youth depression stating the signs and symptoms of teenage depression, reasons for it, and how it can be prevented. As for my online resource I used another Facts on File database called Youth Depression. It tends to focus more on statistics and facts on the topic. All of these resources use accredited authors and statistics/facts from national health resources and I feel strongly that they will help further my research.