Over the next 3 weeks, we will be featuring each one of our 2015 MFA graduates and their thesis projects!

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Starting off the run is illustrator and animator, Mengqian Chen. Learn more about Chen’s project below and for more of her work, check out her website.

Illustration has long been considered a flat two-dimensional art form. Because I have always been interested in challenging the boundaries, I apply the techniques in my animations in combination with 3D objects and illustration work to achieve a mixed media project. 

My thesis project is a children’s book with a story that mirrors the workings of a child’s imagination. The story is set in the sky, where cosmic phenomenon is imagined as the result of a single being. The sun, the moon, the rain, and the rainbow are expanded as real characters living in the sky. As this book is a combination of mixed mediums, including puppet-making, I have made my main character—the Rainbow Princess—as a little felt puppet; yet the other characters remain as 2D hand-drawings, distinguishing the Princess from the other characters. 

Using the elements of animation to bring the puppets and drawings to life, taking the child on a three-dimensional tour of this celestial world, draws them deeper into the fantasy. I want to let my audience feel the real objects emerging from within the layers of paper illustration in the background—then experience the fullness of the story lying deep within their own imaginations.