Ashley Knudsen and Professor W. Wayne Kimball, Jr., Visual Arts
What started as an obsession with Asian paper lanterns has become a passion with light. This research grant entailed a series of prints constructed into paper lanterns with images centered on scriptural based concepts of light.
I have found through experience with past projects that my vision of a project often exceeds my final product. It was no different with this project. After much contemplation and wishful thinking that I hoped would take me to Asia to learn the art of making paper lanterns, my feet remained on the dry ground of Utah.
In the evolution of research I found myself focusing more on the concept and image of light rather than the structure that would house them. I wanted to produce a body of work that portrayed the concept of light while not blatantly illustrating it. I found a number of scriptural phrases I desired to define visually, but realized it was quite demanding mentally in trying to do so.
One example of a scriptural phrase I used was found in Proverbs chapter twenty-nine verse eighteen. It reads “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” It is light, the natural agent such as the sun or the moon that allows for the functional activity of vision or sight. Without that light we perish. Vision can also be defined as understanding. Where there is no understanding the people perish as well. If we don’t understand the nature of who we are, sons and daughters of God, we also perish.
I took it upon myself to attempt to portray this concept and many other scriptures based on light through the medium of printmaking. I found this project a challenge, yet at the same time extremely satisfying. This body of work will eventually be displayed as a whole in a gallery as my Bachelor of Fine Art final project.