This dissertation focuses on the investigation and discussion of individual artistic creation, for the most part by exploring and examining how the writer transformed his own life experiences, feelings and craft experience into wood carving to express his own individual understanding of those experiences. The author has loved art since childhood, and since his first contact with wood carving as a freshman, he has not stopped carving. What is the attraction in this choice of material? Entering graduate school, through a period of artistic expression and thought, what the writer discovered about the observation and experience of real life?
This dissertation is divided into five chapters. In the first chapter, “Introduction,” the writer’s growth, education and sources of his artistic creativity are summarized. In the second chapter, “Historical Reflection,” the influence of art history and individual artists on the writer is narrated. In the third chapter, “Sculpture Materials and Creative Technique,” the analysis and choice of materials, the process of wood carving creation, and the various techniques involved are discussed. Chapter 4, “Creative Thinking,” represents the writer’s own creative ideals and considerations of form. Chapter 5, “Form of Works and Explanation of Works” looks over the evolution of the writers’ creative context during his time in graduate school, and then goes on to present an explanation of each piece. Finally, in the “Conclusion,” an assessment is presented and future directions are given.
In terms of my thoughts about wood carving, I endow the material with geometric form according to the form of my own creativity. Through the contextual evolution of a series of works, the writer seeks and discovers the things he truly wishes to express and the reasons for his persistence in doing so. At the same time, he writes an examination of his own motives along with directions for further progress.