June 2015
01 – Title of project
Self Portrayal
02 – Name of student and any collaborators and their roles
Robyn Thomas
03 – Suggested advisors for studio and for research element (first, second, third choices, if any). Explain your choices.
Studio Advisors
Dr. Laura Gonzalez- Dr. Gonzalez was my first year studio advisor. She is acutely aware of the development of my first year project and how it connects to the second year project. Her prior knowledge of my seemingly backward approach to doing and the direction I am heading will be helpful in my taking this project where it wants to go. As I move from my explorations with other media back to the medium of paint I believe Dr. Gonzalez’s understanding of the paths I have already taken will assist on the return journey. I would also like to expand on conversations begun with Dr. Gonzalez during the first year project in regards to the role of writing in my studio praxis as this will become along with the painting a key practical element.
Dr. Andrew Cooks- Through numerous conversations with Dr. Cooks I believe he is well aware of how my first year project developed and has fed into the second year project’s development, and has some insight to the oppositional approaches I tend to take and the roles thinking/doing play in my process. As the practical element of my second year project moves back to the medium of paint and goes deeper into my writing as a key element in my studio praxis I believe Dr. Cooks could provide many insightful sparks to help light fires along this path.
Research Advisors
It is my hope to continue after completing the MFA into a MPhil/PhD program therefore I wish to work with a research advisor with awareness of these programs and who can help me to further hone the skills needed for this progression beyond my project thesis. I would like a research advisor open to helping me develop my academic writing skills, understanding of the potential the non-academic writing of my studio praxis might play in the academic writing, and be willing to receive communication throughout the entire academic year on the development of the studio portion of my project not for the purpose of feedback [I understand this is only to occur in the Spring Semester], as a means of better understanding the development of the project as a whole so that the relationship of research element and studio element becomes more clearly stated. Suggestions for research advisors are Dr. Michael Bowdidge who served as my first year research advisor, Dr.Gonzalez, or Dr. Cooks.
03. A- Please check off all areas that relate to your work:
Memory, Forgetting, Trauma and the Archive; Creative Fiction and Experimental Non-fiction; Language/Image; Art and Social Technologies; Gender; International Diaspora and Post-Colonialism Role of Art in Peace, Mediation, Performance Activism; Foreignness, Otherness and the Uncanny
04 – Description of proposed project or body of work – practical element
A small group of larger scale paintings, originating from abstract photos of my body, in which I explore a truthfully dishonest expression of the theoretical space containing a multitude of identities at the intersection of non-objective painting and representational self portraiture. In addition to the paintings the practical element will include a series of written self portraits by which I will explore personal identity through lingual abstractions.
05 – Description of project report or thesis – written element
A thesis in which I will discuss the philosophical origins of the question of individual identity: Who am I? I will begin with the writings of Soren Kierkegaard, progressing through twentieth century existential and post-structuralist thought, to the numerous ways in which western society is addressing this question today; a question which has grown more complex through the intermingling of biological, psychological, philosophical, and sociological definitions of who a person might be. Along with addressing the answers, or ‘non-answers’ to this question, I will discuss the origins and significance of the self portrait in both answering and evading the answer to this question, and how this relates to issues of truth and dishonesty in self portrayal. Finally I will conclude the thesis by the contextualization of the results of my practical element to these aspects of defining the self as addressed through my research.
06 – Project results, e.g. documentation, performance, script, intervention, website, exhibition, book, journal
Detailed documentation of the process on my website and a self-published book of images, studio writings and the thesis paper along with the large paintings, small studies and writings will be the results of this project. I am scheduled to participate in a larger group exhibition in late 2015 and a smaller, 3-artist exhibition in [tentatively first half of] 2016; both will include paintings and studies done for this project.
07 – Brief description of research method
My research method begins with looking and listening. Whenever possible I prefer discussing artworks I have experienced in their actuality rather than virtually or via second hand reports. The looking and listening are the points from which I build a rather extensive initial and annotated bibliography with primary sources informing secondary sources and vice versa. These bibliographies will narrow as the research deepens, and the project transitions to the written element [thesis] and the practical element [larger scale paintings].
08 – Initial bibliography for written element
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists. New York: Anchor, 2014.
Berger, Renate. Malerinnen Auf Dem Weg Ins 20. Jahrhundert: Kunstgeschichte Als Sozialgeschichte. Köln: DuMont, 1982.
Bretall, Robert W. A Kierkegaard Anthology. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1972.
Burkett, Elinor. "What Makes a Woman?" Http://www.nytimes.com. N.p., 6 June 2015.
Coplans, John. Provocations. Ed. Stuart Morgan. London: London Projects, 1996.
Cumming, Laura. A Face to the World: On Self-Portraits. London: Harper, 2009.
Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
Eno, Brian. A Year with Swollen Appendices. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.
Five Hundred Self-portraits. London: Phaidon, 2004. Introduction by Julian Bell
Flynn, Thomas. Existentialism. New York: Sterling, 2006.
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1982.
Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. New York: New Directions, 1951.
Hickey, Dave. Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy. Los Angeles: Art Issues., 1997.
Hooks, Bell. "Being the Subject of Art." Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. New York: New, 1995. 133-37.
Hooks, Bell. "Women Artists: The Creative Process." Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. New York: New, 1995. 125-32.
Ingold, Tim. Lines: A Brief History. London: Routledge, 2007.
Kandinsky, Wassily, and Max Bill. Punkt Und Linie Zu Fläche: Beitr. Zur Analyse D. Malerischen Elemente. Mit E. Einf. v. Max Bill. Bern-Bümpliz: Benteli-Verl., 1959.
Kaprow, Allan, and Jeff Kelley. Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. Berkeley: U of California, 2003.
Kertesz, Imre. Ich- Ein Anderer. Trans. Ilma Rakusa. Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1999.
Kierkegaard, Soren. The Essential Kierkegaard. Ed. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2000.
Lacan, Jacques. Ecrits. Trans. Bruce Fink. Comp. Heloise Fink and Russell Grigg. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2006.
May, Rollo. The Meaning of Anxiety. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1977.
Mirzoeff, Nicholas. "Chapter 5: Seeing Sex." An Introduction to Visual Culture. London: Routledge, 1999. 162-92.
Nagel, Thomas. The View From Nowhere. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986.
Nozkowski, Thomas, and Sherman Sam. Thomas Nozkowski: March 31-April 25, 2015. New York: Pace, 2015.
Paley, Grace. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus,Giroux, 1974.
Paley, Grace. The Little Disturbances of Man. New York: Penguin, 1985.
Rosinsky, Thérèse Diamand. "Portraits." Suzanne Valadon. New York: Universe, 1994. 45-76.
Sartre, Jean-Paul, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jean-Paul Sartre. "No Exit." No Exit, and Three Other Plays. New York: Vintage International, 1989. 1-47.
Schapiro, Meyer. Words, Script and Pictures: Semiotics of Visual Language. New York: George Braziller, 1996.
Schjeldahl, Peter. "Native Soil." New Yorker 25 May 2015: 78-79.
Sherman, Cindy. A Play of Selves. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2007.
Solnit, Rebecca, and Ana Teresa Fernandez. Men Explain Things to Me. 2014.
Solnit, Rebecca. "Shooting Down Man the Hunter." Harper's Magazine June 2015: 5-7.
Tomkins, Calvin. "Cindy Sherman." Lives of the Artists. New York: Henry Holt, 2008. 21-45.
Warr, Tracey, ed. The Artist's Body. London: Phaidon, 2000. Survey by Amelia Jones
Wright, Christopher. Rembrandt, Self-portraits. New York: Viking, 1982.
09 – Research question or hypothesis for thesis. For project report only if applicable.
Who am I? Where does the truth of individual identity reside if the individual is a multitude? Is there no ‘true self’ in self, only a fluctuating identity comprised of honest lies, subsequently making self portrayal an act of self betrayal?
10 – Intended audience
Persons interested in non-representational painting, self portraiture, truth and issues of personal identity.
11 – Short statement on your current practice
I am a painter who enjoys exploring the conceptual layers of painting in thoughts, words, objects, and action; but ultimately returns to playing with paint on a surface.
12 – Formulate entire project in 2-3 meaningful sentences.
From birth to approximately 18 months humans have no concept of self recognition; after recognizing the face in the mirror as our own we spend the rest of our lives asking the question: Who am I? This question of individual identity, how we perceive and project our image of self is inherent to our existence; has been explored by artists through the act of self portraiture; and has become more complex as we decipher and debate the ‘scientific truths’ of identity defined by philosophical, physiological, and psychological factors. In the studio I will continue in the tradition of the artist’s self portrait via writings and a series of paintings; explore via my research the tradition of existential thought to the contemporary debates surrounding individual identity; and attempt to connect both as a means of proving the act of self portrayal is an act of self betrayal due to the fluidity of individual identity.
13 – Technical description and production process including medium, quantity, size or duration
A series of smaller studies and larger paintings, primarily created in acrylic,and possibly including other water and oil based paints. The smaller studies will be of unlimited number, on various papers 18 inches x 24 inches/ 45 cm x 60 cm or smaller. The larger paintings may be on either unstretched canvas or paper, and expand to a size up to 5 feet x 7 feet/ 150 cm x 210 cm. The basis of the paintings will most likely be a series of photographs of my body taken with an iPhone 5 and digitally manipulated using standard photo-editing and page layout software. The photos will then be printed at varying sizes on matte photo paper. These photos may or may not become works or parts of other works, incorporated into sketchbooks, or simply remain as a source within the studio. The studio writing will be done primarily on a MacBook Air, but may also include long hand writing which could eventually find a place within the paintings. The writing will be published digitally on my website. Upon completion of the project images and studio writing will become part of a self-published book.
14 – Connect past and future project
Year One project Self Portrait of a Female with Epilepsy: Despite the openness to exploration I found within the project, the initial response to the proposal tended to be one directed to the framework, causing others to view the project as a more closed structure, which was not my intent nor my experience. Therefore one of the elements I would like to carry forward in my studio practice and my research is how structure can be used as a vehicle for enabling chance occurrence without necessitating a disintegration to chaos. In my year two project I have eliminated the framework comprised by the words “Female” and “Epilepsy”, pairing the exploration down to the ‘Self Portrait’ through which I will explore more universal issues of individual identity, a theme that continually surfaced throughout the first year project research and studio work. It is my intention in year two to take a more traditional approach to the medium of painting while bringing with me what I have discovered in the previous year’s exploration into objects, installation, performance and virtual media to enrich the viewer's’ engagement with the work.
15 – Connect studio and research project (if separate), explain how they inform each other.
My studio and research are never separate, each informs but neither illustrates the other. The‘how’ this informing can be seen at the beginning of the project can only be by trusting they will inform each other as a fact that can either be taken as the truth or as an honest lie.
16 – Brief description of conceptual motivation
Who am I?
17 – Short description and abstract (50-100 word) of written element
Perception and projection of individual identity is inherent to our existence; explored through self portraiture; and grows in complexity as we decipher and debate its ‘truths’ per physiological, psychological and philosophical factors, attempting to answer the question: Who am I? Differing factors expose the multiplicity of identities within the individual, raising the question: Where does the truth of individual identity reside if the individual is a multitude? Is there no ‘true self’ in self, only a fluctuating identity comprised of honest lies, subsequently making self portrayal an act of self betrayal?
18 – Proportion of written/practical element
50/50
19 – Possible location for the project
The images and studio texts as well as thesis will be located in the virtual realm of my website. They will also be self published in a limited edition book, available for purchase online. Larger paintings and smaller studies will be exhibited in Rhode Island/USA and Berlin/Germany with the possibility of other locations TBD.
20 – Timeline for realisation of project
June-September 2015
Reading, drawing, sketching, studying and thinking
September-December 2015
Reading, drawing, sketching, painting, writing and thinking
November-December 2015
Studies/related project paintings included in larger group exhibit Candita Clayton Gallery, Pawtucket, RI/USA
January 2016
33-50% [2-4 paintings total] of larger paintings completed; present portion of work Winter Residency 2016
January-April 2016
Reading, drawing, sketching, painting, writing and thinking; possible 3-person exhibit
October 2015- April 2016
One 3,000 word or less essay written and published monthly [6-8 total] to website
April 15, 2016
100% [6-8 total] of larger paintings completed
May 1, 2016
Self-published book completed and available for purchase online
May 2016 TI deadline
Thesis written and website as documentation/virtual home to images and text completed
21 – Budget
Most materials I currently have as studio stock; Therefore I will limit my overall expenses to US$2000, to be broken down as follows:
US$600 paper
US$400 replacement and re-stock of studio materials and supplies
US$300 photo printing, book publication and miscellaneous office supplies
US$300 website hosting annual fee
US$400 framing and presentation expenses
22 – Additional supporting information
None