Date of Award
Summer 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Illustration
First Advisor
Kim Demarco
Abstract
This research begins with lived experiences of dissociation and a persistent sense of disconnection between body and consciousness. It explores the potential of visual narrative as an embodied practice. Through daily walking and sketching, bodily sensations are translated into visual language through a synesthetic process, forming the foundation for a picture book as the central outcome of this project.
The picture book adopts the perspective of a jumping spider positioned beneath a five-year-old girl’s shoe, creating a shifting, downward-facing viewpoint. The spider functions as a viewing position, while the girl represents the inner child. The narrative is constructed around the concept of reparenting, as described by Pete Walker, in which the adult self provides care and protection to the child self.
This research also draws on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of embodied perception, Bessel van der Kolk’s work on trauma and the body, and guided imagery practices in art therapy. It is further supported by V. S. Ramachandran’s mirror therapy for phantom limb syndrome, which demonstrates how visual feedback can reorganize perception. As traumatic experience is often encoded in non-verbal and sensory forms, visual practice offers a way to bypass the limitations of language and directly engage with these perceptual layers.
By transforming an intimate healing process into a shareable and readable picture book, this research also considers the potential of visual narrative to extend beyond individual healing toward collective resonance. The removal of specific identity markers allows the figure of the “inner child” to function as an open structure, inviting viewers to project their own experiences. In this way, the work not only reflects personal healing but also proposes a visual approach that may encourage others to explore their own processes of self-repair.
Recommended Citation
Wang, Skye, "Where Each Step Lands: Reconnecting and Reparenting Through Visual Narrative" (2026). Masters Theses. 1586.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1586
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Art and Materials Conservation Commons, Art Practice Commons, Cognition and Perception Commons, Fiction Commons, Illustration Commons, Painting Commons