Mia Rose Kohn '27

"Clouds in the Head" 

Ballpoint pen and watercolor 

Beinecke Library, a symbol of serious scholarship, is treated in this piece with humor. I drew loosely and with cheap materials—scrap notebook paper stained by coffee, dollar store ballpoint pen, and craft watercolor. I wanted the building to feel like a playground of knowledge rather than a temple.

"Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?"

Pen and watercolor

The main project of our time at Yale is to develop a sense of coherent identity. This process yields more questions than answers. I constructed a student's body from these questions: Who am I? What am I doing here? Where are we going? What matters? Why? She and other students walk upon islands of sky, isolated in collective uncertainty.

As a cartoonist, illustration, and writer, my work centers the alchemy of combining written and visual language, as well as showcasing hand-drawn artwork on digital platforms. I work primarily in pen and watercolor. For the Yale Daily News, I am the associate editor of illustrations and for The New Journal, an associate editor and contributing author.