IF THE SUN WERE AS BIG AS MY HEART, WHAT WOULD BE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE EARTH? OR HOW TO DOMESTICATE THE SUN

Author

• Catalina Martinez, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow
• Catalina Martinez Rojas, Rhode Island School of Design

Date of Award

Spring 5-22-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Printmaking

First Advisor

Tyanna Buie

Second Advisor

Andrew Raftery

Third Advisor

Vanessa Nieto

Abstract

If the Sun were as big as my heart, what would be the distance between the Sun and the Earth? Or how to domesticate the Sun is a multidisciplinary installation project that explores how emotional, spiritual, and perceptual experiences can be translated into material form. Beginning from a speculative mathematical proposition that reduces the scale of the Sun to the size of the artist’s heart, the project investigates distance not only as a physical condition, but also as an emotional and domestic one.

Drawing from Colombian vallenato traditions, everyday observations of sunlight, and references ranging from Agnes Martin and Wayne Thiebaud to Francis Alÿs and Fra Angelico, the thesis approaches art making as a process of noticing, translation, and play. Rays of sunlight, shadows entering a room, and fleeting encounters with light become metaphors for memory, homesickness, intimacy, and attention.

Through handmade paper, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, drawing, and installation, the project attempts to “domesticate” the Sun—not by controlling it, but by bringing it into relation with the body, domestic labor, and everyday life. The resulting installation functions as a collection of traces: objects and gestures that suggest the passage of light through space and through lived experience.

Rather than resolving mystery, the project proposes art as a way of approaching it. Each work becomes a clue, a fragment, or a temporary form through which beauty, distance, and perception can be contemplated.

Recommended Citation

Martinez, Catalina and Martinez Rojas, Catalina, "IF THE SUN WERE AS BIG AS MY HEART, WHAT WOULD BE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE EARTH? OR HOW TO DOMESTICATE THE SUN" (2026). Masters Theses. 1702.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1702

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