Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Painting
First Advisor
Yasi Alipour
Second Advisor
Dana De Giulio
Third Advisor
Meena Hasan
Abstract
What does it mean to have a body? To touch, to breathe, to taste, and perceive all the things that make up a person, how does it feel to recognize the physical bounds your mind is enclosed in? To me—a woman, a bisexual woman, a biracial bisexual woman, an immigrant biracial bisexual woman, a Black and East Asian immigrant biracial bisexual woman—each of these markers feels heavy with its own context of history, location, and interpretation. Too many times have I wondered what it is like to be within a body accepted as a midpoint.
I make work out of spite toward the connotation my body holds in its existence. Drawing a fantastical structure of the world as well as the figure in an attempt to manifest a weightless reality. I think of my figures as my idols, experiencing the state of freedom that will be forever fictitious to me. Oil, with its flexibility of color, opacity, and density, allows for a transformation similar to the volatile nature of the anatomy I create. To allow myself and others who dream of an escape from the discerning gaze of larger society, I paint with clear intention, refusing to comfort the eye that expects a pleasant presentation of one’s body.
Recommended Citation
Monk, Shiyeon, "The Root Over My Eyes" (2026). Masters Theses. 1606.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1606
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.