Art and Design Commons^™

A Face With A View, Cassie S. Jones

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis serves to examine my practice as a visual artist. In its contents I consider both the internal image and the external image and the constant negotiation that happens between these two sets of images. What comes to represent the internal is my own image, in particular, my face. What comes to represent the external are prevailing images of socially idealized beauty. Likewise, I argue that the face becomes especially important in this negotiation as it is the intersection between the internal and the external; the self and the social. Using artists such as Vito Acconci, Orlan, and Andy …

The Thing You Are Looking For, Jessie Shinn

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis document explores the influences and content of visual artist Jessie Shinn’s work, in particular the photography she has done as part of her Master of Fine Arts degree program at Washington University in St. Louis. Ideas discussed include phenomenology, phenomenophilia, affect, defamiliarization, the everyday, space, emptiness and boredom. Important artists and movements mentioned are Caspar David Friedrich, J.M.W. Turner and Romanticism; Alfred Stieglitz and Modernism; and contemporary artists Hiroshi Sugimoto, Uta Barth and Wolfgang Tillmans. Writers and philosophers Samuel Coleridge, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rei Terada, Kathleen Stewart, David Markson, David Foster Wallace, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze are …

Desire And Fantasy: The Conditions Of Reality Between The Self And The Other, Raleigh M. Gardiner

Graduate School of Art Theses

The human condition is constituted by the fluctuating operations of desire and fantasy, which emerge in response to one's fundamental differentiation between 'Self' and 'Other.' As infants, we exist in an expansive realm of sensational “sameness” with the world around us; but as we develop, we quickly learn to differentiate between our internal and external worlds, and are forced to divide and organize our once primordial experience of unity on the basis of isolated exclusion of difference. As we slip into the structures of our social and cultural reality, we absorb language, and are taught to construct our own identities …

Fuck Yeah, Thesis!, Marianne R. Laury

Graduate School of Art Theses

Fandom is a feature of American popular culture that takes elements from specific genres, and reworks them into an individual to formulate an identity. Clothing, music style, meeting places, and even drink choices can be the defining factors for determining which particular group one might associate with. Focusing on groups within fandom culture, I work to disprove the phrase “you can’t judge a book by its cover” by discussing embedded stereotypes common to dedicated fans. As I am not elevating or undermining these groups, I describe their attributes in a non-discriminatory way, and relate them to my own work.

I …

Creatures Of Habit, Joyce Hankins

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

Creatures of Habit is a body of artwork that explores how patterns, habits and records relate to the human desire to find fulfillment and understanding. The work was approached using two distinct ways of making. The first draws upon the concept of a “closed system” to create my own self-contained processes to work within and form imagery around. The second way is responding to pre-existing patterns, or open systems, that allow for a transfer of internal and external information. Open and closed systems represent the human struggle to find control as well as feel connected to the surrounding world. The …

Picture Books As Art : The Presence Of Children's Book Illustrations In Museums And An Analysis Of Children-Visitor Interactions At The Eric Carle Museum Of Picture Book Art, Jennifer Cusworth

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This paper analyzes the presence of children's picture book illustrations in cultural settings, particularly the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts and the New York Public Library in New York City, and determines how children interact with these spaces.

Beatrice, Michele Helene Marglis

Graduate Student Independent Studies

An original picture book biography about the life, ideas, and work of the American artist Beatrice Wood.

Painting And Stuff, Lol, Sopearb Touch

Graduate School of Art Theses

Our own human experience is a distinct realm which can never be precisely duplicated in another lifetime. It frames our whole view of existence and, as artists, affects our art making process. The theory of the Tabula Rasa functions as the inspiration of my work and this writing examines my personal view of growing up in the internet age and America, and how my view of life, as well as artistic practice, is shaped by a consumerist culture that has gone global. Additionally, as a figurative painter, I create a context with other artists who create work about their own …

Ergonomically Designing Art Objects, Ambika Subramaniam

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

The following thesis examines the work of Ambika Subramaniam, in particular her thesis installation Ergonomically Designing Art Objects, for the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis. Based within a discussion of semiotics, the thesis researches furniture signification and tracks its evolution through traditional form, ergonomic function, and consumed product. Major points include the ways in which objects are capable of collapsing and retaining the semiotic divide between a sign and referent, and how that signification relates to contemporary design-oriented products. Using the chair as the exemplifying object, the thesis installation questions how objects have …

Suppressing My Inner Caravaggio, Nathan A. Childs

Graduate School of Art Theses

FULK ART is a body of work that stems out of the divisions and segments of the constructed narrative germane to the notions of "art world" and "art worlds". In his theses Nathan Childs argues that his contemporary studio practice is not rooted in the post production criticism of his objects. Rather his art is a "techne" that hybridizes his daily habits as rituals of making. These rituals are self reverent inspections of multi sided issues, set into a dynamic state. The "third side" of the coin device is a habit of life style that allows Childs to reach deeper …

Graphic Designers And Brain Surgeons, Both Highly Trained, Yet Not Interchangeable: The Creation Of Promotion Materials For Springfest 2014, Alanna Mehrtens

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Graphic design and brain surgery. What do they have in common? Each person is trained in their profession. Each person is called upon for services that are needed for a specific reason. Common sense tells you to not perform brain surgery without the proper training. Why would that be any different for Graphic Design? Whereas most people would never attempt brain surgery, the average person seems more than willing to attempt creating Graphic Design, usually with poor results. Event branding is an example of where training in this profession is most beneficial. I was the Graphic Designer in charge of …

Building A Digital Museum: Opportunities For Scholarship And Learning, Christy Allen, Rick Jones

Christy Allen

No abstract provided.

2014 Program Booklet, Rhode Island School Of Design

Collection (annual runway show) 2007-2017

Official Collection 2014 Program distributed at the event.

"What Happens In Romania..." Comes Back To The United States And Becomes A Quilt, Ashley Ehlers, Kaitlyn Torres

Senior Theses

Our senior thesis project is a quilt that chronicles our experiences on the Maymester trip to Romania through the Honors College, during which we were able to shadow surgeons in the Oncology Hospital and General Surgery III Hospital in Cluj-Napoca. In our quilt, we included some of the most common surgeries we saw while shadowing Romanian doctors: breast removal, gall bladder removal, appendix removal, removal of a section of the large intestine, and removal of the uterus. The final product of this quilt shows every level of the abdominal muscles and organs from the anterior skin to the kidneys.

To …

Maturation Of Practices, Wendell J. Brunious

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The disparate concepts of Pop Art and abstract painting heavily influence the scope of my work. Finding a link between these two concepts has been the focal point of my studio practices. The apex of my process is the focus on commercial imagery as abstract form. The merging of these two concepts presents a complex composition of balance, color and information.

This thesis explores the various concepts as well as influences that have propelled the evolution of my work. It chronicles the steps I have taken in my quest to articulate my conceptual ideas. By describing the works and defining …

Tried It With Glasses Off Too; Sometimes., Nolan John Fedorow

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

I use a small wedge of wood as a tool to pick out food scraps that find themselves lodged between my teeth. I also use a small wedge of wood as a tool to keep a straight door from swinging freely on a crooked house. The small wedge of wood I stuff in between the floor and door as a tool is a controlling apparatus, much like landowners who use fencing to keep people from walking repeatedly through their land and inadvertently creating a path where they shouldn’t. A wooden door stopper will come to adorn a perpendicular-patterned patina across …

Creativity In The Elementary Art Classroom: Incorporating Strategies For Encouraging Creativity, Hannah Kim Sions

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Virginia art educators base their lesson plans on the Visual Arts Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools. Although creativity is implied in these standards, they are not directly mentioned; it is possible that lessons are not encouraging student creativity. Through a review of literature, this study explored the role of creativity in the elementary classroom, the role of creativity in the art education classroom, and strategies to encourage creativity in students. Findings suggest that creativity can be incorporated into lessons through a variety of strategies. Creativity is a lifelong process, and strategies that are incorporated into lesson plans, will …

Student’S Achievement And Artistic Growth Through The Implementation And Enrichment Of The Visual Journal, Emily Nannette Quesenberry

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Abstract This study investigates the incorporation of the visual journal as a learning tool within the art curriculum to understand how it contributes to students’ perception of themselves as artists, students’ understanding of art content, and how it can be used as a source of formative and summative assessment of student growth over time. This study was conducted with a control and a test group. Each group participated in the creation of visual journal pages throughout the course of one semester. However, the test group received additional information on visual journal artists and techniques as well as daily time to …

The Effects Of Constructive Language Instruction And Cooperative Learning On The Quality Of Artwork At The Middle Level, Laura Allison Thompson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This study investigates the effects of explicit instruction in constructive language and cooperative learning activities on the quality of art work produced by seventh grade art students. Data collection included pre- and post-intervention cooperative learning surveys, student and teacher rubric evaluations, artist statements, teacher observations of student interactions, and photographs of artwork. Rubrics included five criteria: 1) idea formation and development, 2) problem-solving, 3) openness to suggestions, 4) depth of theme, and 5) perseverance. Students completed a self-portrait project individually to provide base line data and samples with which to compare collaborative works after two interventions. During the interventions, students …

Learning To See, Jade Webber

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Learning to See is a written document accompanying the culmination of my three years painting at a graduate level. Through an exploration of line, color, shape, light and bears I traverse the wandering heart of painting. This document is an exploration of the place in which people become bears and bears become mountains.