Sunday, January 27, 2008

My thesis

I started my last semester at CU Denver this week. Everything has been scary and exciting at the same time. I have to come up with a proposal in the next week explaining my concept and necessary gallery schematics. It's faster than I expected.

Choosing the topic of my thesis is daunting. A lot of my colleagues want me to incorporate guinea pigs in my show. I feel like I have already accomplished this with the comic book. I need something with a serious concept.

I've been avoiding topics about being American Born Chinese in my artwork. It is a hard subject to tackle with personally, and it does not help that my art is influenced by Japanese ink drawings. The style and concept just don't connect. I'm more comfortable in incorporating the subject of anxiety in my art than my ethnic background.

A lot of ideas pop into my head when I think about the topic, so I know it's a good one. It seems many people with multiple ethnic backgrounds have problems with fitting in like I do. Not understanding the language. Neither Chinese or American. I haven't decided if I'm emotionally ready to give my all to this topic.

I always wondered why Amnesty International's Universal Declaration of Human Rights said:


Everyone has the right to a nationality.
No one shall be arbitrarily
deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

I didn't understand how someone can change their nationality. I now see nationality is based on your influences. If you feel at home with a certain culture, it's fine to become a part of it.

I guess I'll give it a shot.

2 comments:

E.A. said...

Hmmmm. This post is deeper than usual.

It's about time, Melon! Just don't get Xiao to write any posts about eating or, you know, stalking female hamsters.

As for culture, it's all about doing, listening, watching what makes you happy. Watching Miyazaki films makes me happy. (Incidentally, in L.A. there's going to be a Miyazaki retrospective put on by the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre starting Feb. 1. I might catch it.)

That doesn't make me want to live like the Japanese do. I enjoy much of the Japanese cuisine (or what I think to be food consumed regularly by Japanese guys). I take a piece of every culture and make it a part of me somehow. Now, for the most part I'm African-American. But I'm 100% an individual, and to me that's really all that matters to me from day-to-day.

ENOCH

Victoria Gallagher said...

Like you I'm an aspiring animator, and it's really a difficult task developing a good thesis proposal. It's best to stick to good thesis ideas that you're very interested with, not necessarily what identifies your culture personally. Because who knows, maybe your interest really lies in cultures differing from your own.