First Draft of my Thesis Proposal: thesis proposal
Thesis Schedule (clickable link)
Writing Research:
I initially started my thesis by recording audio journals of my state of mind at that moment. Trying to recollect on my past and analyze my current problems. The goal was to talk with no limitations or filters and to just be introspective and honest with myself. Each audio journal lasted about 30 mins to an hour. I had to transcribe each recording, and choose which part of the monologue I’d include in my sculptures.
Sketchbook Journals (link)
- I started becoming apprehensive towards recording the audio journals, so I decided to go through my old sketchbooks and transcribe what I’ve written in the past two years. I often use my sketchbook as a diary as well. This was just a practice to reflect on past memories and use them as inspiration for my final writings.
These poems are the more refined writings for my thesis.
- I asked the TA’s and my peers to help me critique my writings, and it seems though most people were drawn to the longer formatted poems. One of my critiques was to push the specificity of my writings and give the reader more context of the memory I’m writing about.
- I personally found the memoirs more challenging to write due to the six word limitation. I realized instead of using one specific memoir for one sculpture; instead I’ll use them all for one of the soft sculptures.
- My inspiration came from fortune cookie messages and candy hearts. I loved the idea of picking an object and having a mysterious message embedded onto them. I want to recreate that playfulness with laser cut felt; but with my memoirs etched on, which don’t have the happiest messages to read. I also want my audience to be able to take my felt memoir off the sculpture, as if they are taking a piece of me home with them.
- Yayoi Kusama has always been an inspiration of mine, so this idea of overwhelming my sculpture character with tons of memoir messages remind me of Kusama’s Accumulation No. 1 sculpture. I want to overwhelm my sculpture with my memoirs, and create a sense of heaviness and burden.
Felt Sculpture:
- I’m intending to have a collection of five needle felted sculptures for my thesis. Some of them will be roughly the size of a 6 year old, so about 3-4 feet tall. I’ll also have some sculptures that are smaller in scale. The sculptures are going to be influenced by the writing and the poems I’m doing.
- I’m still having a tough time figuring out the “final look” of my sculptures. I know I want them to resemble this illustration I did —
Inspiration/Experimentation:
I’m taking Adv. Silkscreen so I’m trying to incorporate themes from my thesis into my prints. I was thinking of printing these Unhappy Faces onto t-shirts and have one of my sculptures wear them. Or even printing on fabric itself and sewing that onto the sculptures. 
These are some sketchbook drawings I did to gain some inspiration on how to construct my felted characters. Also playing around with hand-lettered type and potential phrases to include in my writing.
I experimented with painting on a piece of stiff fabric felt to see if it would be a good alternative to needle felting my sculptures. However, it was a mini failure because the felt sucks up too much of the paint even though I gessoed it before. Also the paint doesn’t mask the pencil marks, but this was an exercise to embrace my emotional state of mind for my thesis.
This original hand-lettered illustration was from a time during freshman year when I was really struggling with my mental health and school. I recreated it for silkscreen and used it as inspiration for my thesis. This word encompasses the mood I often find myself, and this illustration in itself reminds me of a lot of past struggles and mistakes. I loved the result of silk screening on felt, so I really want to include some element of silk screen into my thesis.