Personal Statement

Applicant: Tao Yutong

With great motivation and confidence, I hope to pursue a postgraduate study in the field of

Illustration and Visual Media in the London College of Communication at UAL.

Among all the branches of art, I feel completely absorbed in illustration, especially those with stories.

The fascinating animation character could only attract me, and what absorbing me is the story. It

feels like that those characters are living, full of flesh and blood. Even the most ordinary person has

his extraordinary story, and simple plot often reveals the most touching truths of life. In my spare

time, I always bring my pen with me so as to catch even the smallest spark of inspiration, keep little

movement alive, and record happiness in my style. ‘The Little Prince’, in my opinion, was the one

of the best books in the world for its simplicity, for its philosophy, all these made me determined to

be an illustrator.

In order to pursue my dream with no regrets, I chose to study Animation as my major in

undergraduate years for it gave me insight of the vivid and rich color. I learned a lot courses in

theory, such as perspective, model, animation, sketch, and storyboard creation. As far as I am

concerned, the animation education I received in China will benefit me in the long run for my study

of illustration in UK for in my illustrations, I tend to use more bright and various color to point up

emotions and implications. However, I paid more attention to put theories into practice, so I took

part in many contests to equip myself with more solid skills, such as, 2014 Beijing College Student

Illustration Contest. I competed with all the art students in Beijing, and won Bronze Medal. To

improve my ability and my sensibility more fashion, I took part in a film production called The

Diary of A Lazy Boy and was responsible for the drawing of the shooting scripts. Art, fashion and

creativity are intertwined, thus I participated in many contests related to esthetics and creativity. For

example, I won the gold medal of the video team in the 2013 Beijing College Students Elastic Car

Equation Contest. Recently, I have participated in a fashion contests held by Vipshop, and I

successfully stood out of all the competitors in China and won the Gold Medal, which offered me

an opportunity to go to Central Saint Martins to learn more about art, fashion and beauty, and a

reward of RMB 30000. Besides that, I made a micro movie independently, called The forgotten

Painting, which became a hit in my university.

I fully understand the importance of the inspiration and the accumulation of experience. In order to

catch the intangible inspiration, I went to Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang to enjoy the frescoes from

the perspective of its coexistence of "the beauty of flying dynamic" and” the beauty of plain " . I’ve

been always impressed by the traditional Chinese folk art and the desert stretch as far as the eye can

see. Touched by the tough vitality and force I gained from the desert, I created a set of drawings,

the wondering girl in the desert, the prince of birds, the snails’ troop, and the flower gave to the little

girl by the snails. Mo Kao Grotto was my first stop, I went to Tibet soon afterwards, to felt for the

mysterious religious culture. The piety, generosity and unsophisticated of Tibetans always stroke

my heart and soul, ponder and reflect on myself: cherish your life and faith. I went to Thailand, the

tropical country with the most beautiful elephants. Among all the destination I went to, Dunhuang

touched me most for the smallest life can bring the brightest light in someone other’s life while you

are in the desert.

Social experience help me blend theories into practice, and have a brand new thinking towards

illustration. I found out that Chinese illustration put more importance on drawing techniques, but I

want to learn more about thoughts and creativity. I hope that I can grasp those knowledge about

illustration. I believe, also, I can bring Chinese techniques to UK as well, which will bring an

integration of the illustration in China and UK. I believe that through studying the advanced and

systematic design philosophy and ethos, and working with some of the leading minds in your

university. I will find what I long for: creativity and thoughts. I will appreciate it if you would

favorably consider my application.

Study Proposal

Tao Yutong

Research Question

My current research topic is “psychopaths” who are one of marginal crowd in the contemporary social. In MA

phase, I will continue to study the life status in the society and their inner nature, and deeply excavate this world

from their perspective.

In the current Chinese society, people always keep a certain distance from patients with psychosis, and they think

that they are harmful and they do not agree with their view. According to my investigation and experience, not all

psychopaths are incoherent and nonsense, and not all psychopaths are harmful. In fact, most of them look similar

to ordinary people, but their inner world is too complicated, and they don’t know how to express some words.

Some psychopaths are very smart, and they can treat problems from different perspectives. However, some famous

scientists and artists in the history suffered from a mental illness, so, there is a small difference between a genius

and a madman. Personally, I don’t agree with the ideas of some of them, but I respect them.

We don’t concentrate on whether these studies are the authoritative or not, in the field of painting, the artists who

are “both talent and madman” are very common. In the ordinary people’s view, they are very crazy, but we have to

admit that they are indeed the elves of art and great talents. The data can confirm that they really suffered from a

schizophrenia, such as Michelangelo, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Munch, Xu Wei, Shi Lu, etc.

The Context

1 Yayoi Kusama

She is only an “obsessive artist”. When she was less than 10 years old, Yayoi Kusama had a neurological audio-

visual obstacle, and she often had an auditory hallucination and illusion. The world seen by her is covered with a

huge network, so she kept painting and tried to express her illusion with repeated dots - mental disease and artistic

creation almost accompanied her whole life. She used to suffer from a schizophrenia. When she way lying on the

bed, he would feel the ceiling was rotating, and she strongly felt dizzy, and she couldn’t control herself, and then

she would be very depressed and very anxious. Now, when she is alone, she still has the same trouble. In fact, as

early as a few decades ago, someone has proposed that Yayoi Kusama took use of his mental problems to

publicize herself. Today, people still don’t understand her mental state, but what they are only certain is that she is

still living in a mental nursing home. In 1956, she moved to New York City and began to show her avant-garde art

creation which occupies a leading status, and now, she is living in Tokyo, Japan.

2 Vincent Willemvan Gogh

In Al times in 1888, because of mental disorders, he cut off an ear; In St Remy times, in May 1889, Vincent

Willemvan Gogh voluntarily went to live in St Remy mental hospital; A month after going to the hospital, he

created one of his most famous paintings---Starry Night that is in The Museum of Modern Art in New York. He

even held an impressionism-style and comprehensive-school exhibition. Vincent Willemvan Gogh met Munch in

Paris.

3 Edvard Munch

Munch creation cursed by the death and spiritual disease.

An expressionist painter and printmaker artisan in Norway, a pioneer of modern expressionist paintings.

The paintings of Edvard Munch have a strong subjectivity and sad and depressed emotional appeal. He expressed a

strong mental anguish, and his main works include Scream, Dance of Life, Night in Karl Johans gate.

4 Shi Lu

Shi Lu is a contemporary Chinese painter. In 1959, he created Moving to Fight in Northern Shaanxi, which has a

higher reputation. Later, he founded Changan painting school together with Zhao Wangyun. His early style is

realistic, and his use of writing is solid, careful and precise, and he mostly drew paintings with a revolutionary

theme; In late period, his style is peculiarly magnificent and powerful, and most of his paintings are based on

Huashan Mountain and lotus, and his vigor of strokes in drawing is also magnificent and powerful.

During Shi Lu’s exuberant creation period, in 1964, he was only forty-five years old, but he was criticized and

suffered a powerful depression, so he has a schizophrenia. In the “cultural revolution”, he was arrested again, and

he was almost sentenced to death. His artistic life basically ended. So, his formal creation career is no more than a

decade. [2] Except a few carefully created masterpieces, Shi Lu has other paintings, such as Qinling Mountains,

Autumn Harvest, etc.

Methodology

The first phase: Secondary Research

In this phase, it takes pathergasiology as the principle thing. I will search the research literature about the

pathergasiology, extract key information, especially the causes leading to all kinds of mental diseases, which are a

theoretical support for the future design.

The second phase: Primary Research

This stage concentrates on the questionnaire survey and interview. First of all, I will take a large amount of

investigation on documents, collect the public’s opinions on mental patients, as well as understand the relation

between madness and genius. Then I will interview two groups. The first category are the doctors who treat mental

illness, and I will understand their opinions through contacting with mental patients. The second type is some

psychiatric patients, and I will understand their own inner activities and thoughts through the conversation with

them.

The third phase: Creation

In this stage, I will collect and analyze all the information I collected, and extract the key contents as the starting

point of creation. I will create from two perspectives, such as psychopaths and the public, discuss the views of

psychopaths on the public and the society, and the misunderstandings of the public on psychopaths, which shows

that psychopaths are different the people who are in the eyes of the public. My suggestion is: firstly, search for the

symptoms of psychosis and the cause of this disease on the Internet; secondly, refer to the books on psychology

and psychiatric to review the explanation of psychosis from the point of brain structure., such as the works

collection of Freud which require us to face your inner fear and use the four personal psychology to make the

crime scene investigation. After a large amount of materials collected, I would take an on-the-spot investigation by

accessing to the mental hospital. During that period, I would take many photos to record their daily life, and make

a voice record when chatting with them.

Resources

First of all, I need some very theoretical research data about psychology and psychiatry, and deeply understand the

causes of mental illness and behavioral expression.

I also hope that I can have an opportunity to obtain more sufficient data support.

I hope that there will be plenty of interviewees and a better channel that they can go into the mental hospital, so as

to observe their ordinary life and to capture the details of their life through the camera.

It was impossible for me to enter into the mental hospital in the city even with some methods, such as the Mental

Hospital in Tongzhou District in Beijing. While for the small and remote mental hospital, it is much easier for me

to enter into it and make some interviews and investigations. Therefore, the mental hospital I visited was a small

one located in Huajia Village, Songzhuang in Beijing. And I selected the patients in this hospital as my

investigating participants.

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