Patience Thompson BFA Illustration Thesis Fall 2014

The Darkest Part of the Forest

When we are born we each have one thing we can call our own: our bodies. In many ways our bodies act as independent galaxies. Within each of our bodies are organs, cells, nerves, bones, muscle, tissue and blood. All these forces move together much the way that the planets, moons and stars of our solar system operate together through invisible and automatic forces. What happens inside our bodies on a cellular level remains a largely invisible world that in many ways is beyond our ability to perceive with the waking mind, like a dark forest that science, medicine, mysticism and art have only barely allowed us comprehend. Like all dark forests, we question the unknown within. It takes intention, willpower and careful stepping to make the choice to go into the heart of such a forest. Becoming an art model made me aware of the universe that is my body. It changed the way that I perceived the world around me, the world within me and influenced how I make art. This paper is a study on how modeling can be a mind altering experience and furthermore how embracing such mind altering states is beneficial to humanity.

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Fall 2014