Noelle's Blog

  Description  My honors art thesis will explore the contradictory nature of navigating life with true autonomy. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Psychology, individual autonomy refers “to the capacity to be one’s own person, to live one’s life according to reasons and motives that are taken as one’s own and not the product of manipulative or distorting external forces, to be in this way independent.” Thus, my pieces will concern themes of public scrutiny and observation because the consequential feelings of feeling watched can restrict one’s ability to act authentically. Within this idea exists a contradiction between internal autonomy, what one wants to do, and the external manifestation of conformality or hesitation. I question if true autonomy can exist if others perceive you differently than you do yourself. Furthermore, I will dive into the internal conflict that prevents one from being their “own person”. Oftentimes, opposing emotions and traits compete in the ...

Bailey’s life is narrow and mundane. Tied down by her selfish desires, you’ll often find her moping around, angry at the world and herself.  These were my pictures for draft 1. I tried my best to create a sense of longing and anger in my facial expression, reaching out into the distance.  For Draft 2, I wanted to make my facial expression and actions more extreme. I really wanted to lean into the alter ego aspect, appearing as different as myself as possible. I emphasized the anger aspect of Bailey more.  This project pushed me outside of my comfort zone as I don’t usually make photography, especially of myself. In fact, despite taking these pictures alone, I felt almost awkward or uncomfortable while posing for the camera.   

  This mask is representative of my internal conflict between chaos and order. I always yearn to find balance in my life, attempting to implement rigidity and structure. However, I naturally find myself in spontaneity and disorder. Neither state is good nor bad, yet this state of contradiction is hard for me to understand.  On the left side, a honeycomb grows. The geometric hexagonal shapes symbolize harmony, structure, and laborious dedication, in likeness to the work of bees of creating a home. Contrasting this sweetness is a uniquely beautiful collection of amorphic shapes. This represents fluidity and disorder.  I created a wire mold of my face and built polymer clay on top. Making the honeycomb was time-consuming because of the geometric structure.  I fired the clay after half was done so I could move on to the facial features and molten shapes.  I tried to use my face as a reference so I could create the mask as much in likeness as possible.  Finally,...

    The Red Wheelbarrow By William Carlos Williams  so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens ...  Continued  By Noelle Cha an open green journal  worn with my  memories  collections of glass  bottles  in their inviting home  the chapel bells  hugged by winter's  first  snow  a room lit  by  orange  glow against the cool night  a rarity of rainbow  light   twice bent by stormy rain  a moment of dark  nothingness     I interpreted this poem as a reminder to find the beauty in the mundane— everyday objects and moments that we often overlook. The creation of this piece became a meditative and reflective process, helping me appreciate the world around me.       The final poem was an afterthought. After speaking with a classmate, he inspired me to reveal the poetic meaning behind each page.  F...