Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Illustration
First Advisor
Susan Doyle
Second Advisor
Kyung-Me C
Third Advisor
Kim DeMarco
Abstract
This thesis explores visual expression in drawing as an intuitive mode of thinking suited to everyday life—a form of expression that runs parallel to language and surpasses it.
The project begins with a daily Post-it note drawing practice. These drawings often emerge before conscious understanding, subsequently accompanied by brief text, allowing image and word to resonate through emotion and intuition. Through the use of small-scale, portable, low-pressure materials, and with immediacy and intuitive freedom as the foundation of making, a visual language system grounded in the self develops. Through this sustained practice, I developed an instruction-based card system titled Draw to Breathe. Drawing on symbolic systems such as the tarot, it guides drawing into daily life—setting aside the demands and pressures of technique, and offering participants a more accessible point of entry.
Drawing on theories of narrative, visual perception, and the relationship between image and text, the project further investigates how images carry meaning as an expressive extension of the individual's engagement with history, memory, perception, and imagination as abstract thought. It poses questions and challenges to the definition of contemporary art, reconceiving drawing as something instrumental, usable, sustainable, and accessible to broad audiences—and regarding it as a relational tool, a means of connecting the individual and inner experience with the collective and the external world.
This thesis does not aim to treat drawing as a finished result, a mode of making confined to the domain of art. Rather, it approaches drawing as a process-oriented, continuously unfolding method—a gentle and enduring practice of thinking, communicating, and expressing; a way of being that transcends language. Like breathing, it moves naturally between the interior and exterior of the body, passing between the visible and the invisible. Through action, thought is driven forward and made visible; embodied experience and perception are translated into visual language and laid down on paper.
Recommended Citation
Ma, Ranran, "Draw to Breathe" (2026). Masters Theses. 1587.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1587
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