RISD Grad Show 2026

RANRAN MA

MFA Illustration

 

Draw to Breathe

Ranran Ma is a painter, illustrator, and ceramic artist. Her practice spans abstract painting and creative writing. She views art as a tool for communication, a mode of expression that exists alongside language. Through intuitive exploration and self-healing processes, grounded in personal experience, her work investigates how narratives transform across contemporary media, exploring diverse forms of interaction and their connections to personal experience, culture, history, and memory. The pursuit of emotional depth and a distinctive narrative sensibility runs throughout her practice.

Draw to Breathe is a prompt-based drawing system centered on instruction cards. Emerging from her ongoing daily drawing practice, it treats images as a way of thinking and an inner language. The project aims to bring drawing into everyday life as a form of expression parallel to verbal communication.

As an artist and educator, Ranran seeks to integrate art into communities through shareable and adaptable approaches, fostering communication and the exchange of experience. Her work repositions drawing from an individual act into a relational and collective process.

Left is the image side: interwoven colored figure-eight lines extend vertically between two brown circular forms, forming a symmetrical looping structure, with small dots arranged across the center suggesting the number eight, creating a continuous rhythm. Right is the prompt side: minimal text and dispersed “8” symbols on a white layout instruct folding a piece of paper, drawing mirrored figure-eights on both sides, and coloring them in different colors.

Untitled 1
Fold a piece of paper in half. Mirror figure-eights across both sides with a permanent pen, however many, wherever. Color them in different colors.

Left is the image side: multiple radiating colored lines extend outward from central points, forming star-like shapes across a white night sky, with a curved horizon at the bottom. Right is the prompt side: minimal text on a white layout instructs sitting beneath the night sky for a period of time and writing eight lines about the stars.

Untitled 2
Sit beneath the night sky for an hour, in stillness. Then write eight lines about the stars you met tonight.

"Left is the image side: suns and moons in circular and crescent forms are arranged in a looping path, alternating warm and dark tones, with a soft glow at the center. Right is the prompt side: minimal text on a white layout instructs keeping the body still, moving only the dominant hand, and drawing twelve different suns and twelve different moons."

Untitled 3
Keep your body still. Move only your dominant hand and draw twelve different suns and twelve different moons.

Left is the image side: soft colored strokes expand around a central, rock-like window structure, with floating circular and curved forms arranged in light layers. Right is the prompt side: minimal text on a white layout instructs photographing every stone encountered that day and drawing them in gold to fill the page.

Untitled 4
Photograph every stone you meet today. Draw them in gold, let them fill the page.

Left is the image side: colored arcs spiral around the center, forming a vortex-like space that suggests a flower focused on its core, with circular forms and vertical lines arranged above and to the left, creating a layered sense of motion. Right is the prompt side: minimal text on a white layout instructs buying a bunch of flowers, observing each pistil, drawing them, and arranging them into a pattern.

Untitled 5
Buy a bunch of flowers. Observe each pistil, draw them, arrange them into a pattern.

Left is the image side: repeated circular forms resembling speech bubbles are arranged within a vertical, book page-like layout, with symmetrical curved shading on both sides, creating a soft layered rhythm. Right is the prompt side: minimal text on a white layout instructs choosing three favorite books, taking phrases from the first and last paragraphs of each, and combining them into a poem.

Untitled 6
Choose your three favorite books. Take phrases from the first and last paragraph of each. Make a poem.

Left is the image side: curved lines and circular forms create a path-like movement through the space, suggesting the trajectory of a die as it falls and bounces, with multiple nodes above and to the left and a landing point at the bottom. Right is the prompt side: minimal text on a white layout instructs rolling a die 22 times, using each landing spot as a starting point and the number facing up to determine the number of drawing strokes.

Untitled 7
Roll a die 22 times on paper. The spot where it lands is where you start. The number facing up is how many strokes to draw.

Left is the image side: an irregular polygonal form resembling a clock face sits at the center, with a grid and circular elements suggesting numbers and divisions of time, surrounded by symmetrical nodes and layered halos, forming a static spatial composition. Right is the prompt side: minimal text on a white layout instructs noting times throughout the day, gathering the numbers, and arranging them into a scene or a poem.

Untitled 8
Throughout the day, wherever you remember, note the time. Gather the numbers, arrange them into a scene or a poem.

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Rhode Island School of Design

20 Washington Place
Providence, RI 02913–2784
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+1 401 454 6100
+1 800 364 RISD

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RISD Seal

Rhode Island School of Design

20 Washington Place
Providence, RI 02913–2784
United States of America

+1 401 454 6100
+1 800 364 RISD