Feeling a mixture of accomplishment and a little sadness to see the show come down and prepare for graduation. I wanted to make one last post on this blog about the thesis exhibition. Here’s an excerpt from my thesis paper:
I wanted my exhibition space in the gallery to feel inviting and intimate. Three components make up the display. A mural approximately 6×9 feet long invites viewers into the space. I used pages 2-3 from my comic in the mural because the pages include both Codey and the Wyoming landscape, which are central to establishing the story’s setting and tone. Within the mural, a panel depicts Codey observing the landscape, her thoughts written above. The mural also shows the landscape that Codey is contemplating, inviting viewers into her perspective and immediately establishing that the project is a narrative work.
A shelf contains the central component of my thesis project, the book itself. I didn’t want the book to seem like a precious object to be handled with care. Offering multiple copies allowed readers to pull the books from the shelf and flip through the pages freely. The book is a small paperback that can be held easily in one hand, something that could be thrown in a backpack or perused while curled up in a corner somewhere. (A lot of copies went missing during the exhibition, haha.)
The final component is a log bench. Meant to appear as if it could be a prop from the comic, it also serves as a sitting area for visitors to read the comic, complete with a hand-made quilt for added coziness. An accompanying pine log along the floor—left over after building the bench—brings a literal piece of nature into the space and serves as an additional element to further relate the bench, mural, and comic to each other.
On to the next adventure!
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Amanda is an MFA student 