Presenting my Senior Thesis
My thesis investigates the benefits of creating story as a means to ease anxiety and depression from hospitalization and treatment, reframe outlooks, increase quality of life and give children hope for future.
I decided to explore art therapy techniques, narrative therapy, and graphic design to come up with an approachable and affective protocol for a child in treatment.
By creating this work I learned that visual expression is important in order to find healthy and positive ways to work through psychological affects associated with cancer. My hope is that this protocol can be used in future programs.
The questions I had at the beginning of this research
were
What are the psychological benefits of creating story?
How a created tangible storybook benefits psychologically as well as reform hope for the future
How would the pediatric child population benefit from this research?
How can one tell their story visually?
Through the use of visual appropriation, the child is invited to choose from a chart of animals one whom which the child can associate their characteristics to. One from before treatment, one who they feel like now, and one for the future.
The child will be invited to color in the animal any color of their choice.
While the child is coloring, they are brought through a narrative therapy approach in which they explain why the animals feel the way to them.
The therapist at the end of the session will utilize all information for the formation and creation of a visual storybook. Through the use of graphic design, the therapist will piece together the information given and create a story book that will be given back to the child to keep and read at night.
The purpose of this tangible book is to help reframe future focus and outlook on their lives and see themselves as strong. Having this book will benefit emotional wellness and promote feelings of individuality.
The materials I used include Adobe Illustrator, Indesign as online platforms as well as Acrylic Paint on canvas and board.
Lens Perception visual series challenges the existing medical lens that limits the child from being able to see themselves as more than a patient or a sick kid defined by medical needs and health care issues. The risk of missing out on these identities.
I have created this series as an informed researcher to address this medical lens. The idea of having a vision of something in front of you but not clearly seeing the view is a concept the artist sought to explore more into. Seeing, but through a looking glass that is filled with different emotions from the drops of rain or being able to look through the glass with the raindrops and still look at what is in front of you is one way to look at the blurred lens. Another way to see it is that the windowpane of glass is restricting the viewer from getting closer to the landscape. This can be a trapped feeling, which is also a genuine response from people being hospitalized. The paintings are ambiguous as the mood arisen from each painting can be different for each viewer depending on their persecution due to personal story of influence.
The issues of identity and place are addressed.
The importance of the blurry to the viewer to allow for their own interpretation
