Painting Commons^™

Professional Practices: Faculty Of The University Of Tennessee School Of Art (Exhibition Catalogue), School Of Art

Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture

This exhibition featured the work of current professors in the University of Tennessee School of Art.

Exhibiting faculty were: Joshua Bienko, Emily Bivens, Sally Brogden, Jason S. Brown, Rubens Ghenov, Paul Harrill, John Kelley, Mary Laube, Paul Lee, Beauvais Lyons, Frank Martin, Christopher McNulty, Althea Murphy-Price, John Powers, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Jered Sprecher, and Koichi Yamamoto.

Also included in the catalogue are art history faculty members: Mary Campbell, Timothy W. Hiles, Kelli Wood, and Suzanne Wright.

Behind The Plexi, Janina E. Martinez-Fields

Theses

I am a realistic figurative painter focusing on culture, family, friends and identity. Throughout my life I have found little representation for artists who are women and less for women of color, and emphasized this topic through my art. I incorporated the struggles experienced through this past year's pandemic as an added layer of obstacles for women in the creative industry. I combined two surfaces; wood to represent life and plexiglass to represent how we have protected ourselves through separation. I use vibrant acrylic colors on both the wood and plexiglass layers to represent the moods, professions and activities of …

Straight Through My Heart, Raul A. Aguilar Canela

Theses and Dissertations

Straight through my heart is an exhibition that explores the concept of heartbreak as a socio-political phenomenon. Through the affect of sadness the thesis analyses the way in which subjects are formed under cognitive capitalism. Paying particular interest to the collateral effects of neoliberal culture —hyper-stimulation, self-exploitation, competition, and obsession with productivity—and the pathologies they create —depression, anxiety, body aches, fatigue— this work shifts the burden of sadness from the individual to the community. By doing so it proposes heartbreak as a public feeling.

An Escapist Utopia, Sara Eh Denney

Theses and Dissertations

As an active pursuit of avoiding excellence, my work acts as a space for failure, play, experimentation and imperfection. This document and final installation acts as a pause along a lifelong journey of object-making, creation, and spirituality. My work, specifically my working practice, rather than any one object or moment, is an escapist utopia for myself. My work is the process, the journey, not the ending or the completion of any one thing. The repetition, distortion, and production that I engage throughout my working practice acts as a spiritual exercise of meaning—making through creation. I fall deeply in love with …

Difficult Paintings, Hao (Damien) Ding

Theses and Dissertations

The sublime as a concept has a fraught and racist history. However, it remains the single most helpful idea in describing the deeply felt state of being when one comes across something ineffably powerful. From an art-making perspective, this thesis, and the accompanying exhibition of installations and paintings, proposes an alternative construction of the concept of the sublime. Using Lacanian psychoanalysis as a conceptual point of departure, a painter can manipulate the relationship of the viewer and paintings to create paradoxical moments of simultaneous intimacy and distance, which interact to create an alternative path towards the sublime. Through descriptions of …

Why Be A Great Women Artist When You Could Be Spectacular: The Study Of Women Old Masters In The Art History Canon Through Art Market Bias, Zoë Mahler

MA Theses

It has been 50 years since the publication of Linda Nochlin’s renowned 1971
essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” On the 50th anniversary, the question remains the same. Questioning the woman artist’s place in the art world has become nuanced, and the restraints women experienced, as highlighted by Nochlin, still have validity today. By exploring the last 20 years of the art market and the perception of the woman’s place in the art world, it is clear progress has been made in certain respects, especially regarding Women Old Masters. The canon of art history and the subsequent …

Luminous Threshold, Peggy Wen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Luminous Threshold is an interactive experience exploring the liminal transition between the viewer and ambiguous spaces. My thesis exhibition incorporates two paintings, one continuous pulsing light structure, two sound-activated light structures, and a black cube that is perceived to be inserted through the gallery wall. The paintings and forms explore liminality within a two-dimensional space, while the light pieces create an ephemeral viewer- participation experience. Liminality, defined by Arnold Van Gennep and Victor Turner, is one of three stages in life an individual will go through. It is considered a Rite of Passage or Threshold and is the ambiguous transitional …

Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton

CMC Senior Theses

An exploration grounded in the works of visionary artists within the contemporary Post-Black era. Artists such as Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, and Glenn Ligon whose works resonate with the fears, anxieties, and intentions that I wrestled with. I engaged with the iconography and historical background of the contemporary Post-Black era. A dive into the historical, philosophical and artistic implications behind making art about race and racism as a Black artist. Ultimately, through the aid of artists from the Post-Black era, I created a three-part response to the initial question: “Why don’t you make art about race?”

For Consumption: Observations Of Paint, Food, & Culture, Annette Tojar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This thesis is a visual documentation of my story. In it, I discuss the urgency which drives the creation of my work. Unable to speak the same language, my grandmother and I used food and paint as means of communication, thus instilling my love of food, my desire to paint, and my need to investigate my Cuban culture. As a former professional pastry chef, my understanding of the physicality of food informs how it is portrayed on a two-dimensional surface for visual indulgence. I explore loss, objectification, transculturation, and the pandemic through images of food, while experimenting with the properties …

Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton, Blake Morton

CMC Senior Theses

I constantly experience external pressure to make identity-related art work in response to the ongoing racial-reckoning occurring in the United States.

Initially, I was concerned with the pitfalls of creating identity-art. One of which being pigeon-held as a Black artist— whose sole function is to share my vulnerable experiences —and be commodified and diluted for superficial consumption. A Black artist whose work would only be valuable when institutions needed to satisfy a diversity quota, a Black History Month initiative or to conduct damage control after being “canceled.”

All of which may very well still happen. I’ve utilized this project to …

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

CMC Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …

As Many Names As Objects, Luke Herrigel

Senior Projects Spring 2021

“And we: spectators, always, everywhere,

turned toward the world of objects, never outward.

It fills us. We arrange it. It breaks down.

We rearrange it, then break down ourselves”

• Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies

“Honesty is Unbelievable”

• A Bumper Sticker I Saw

For my senior show I used collected materials, found objects, personal ephemera (both genuine and fabricated), paintings and sculpture to make installations that I would change every night of the show’s duration. Each morning the installation would be photographed, left for only a few hours, and then would be uninstalled to make way for creating a new iteration. …

The Seasons Of Genji, Elizabeth Mudry

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Artist Statement

The Seasons of Genji

The Tale of Genji was written for Empress Fujiwara no Shoshi by Murasaki Shikibu, a fellow court noblewoman, during the Heian Period of Japan (794 AD to 1185 AD). One could dismiss The Tale of Genji as a romantic tale of a prince and his lovers, a story full of beauty, poetry, and women named after flowers. While Genji is a shining prince with poetic affairs, the focus of the tale never lingers too long on the sweetness of love. Rather, the tale explores the cycles that grip Genji’s life and the control they …

Combat Artist, Delvin Goode

Master's Theses

The integral bond that unites the American citizen with the selfless men and women of the Armed Forces will be strengthened through my juxtaposition of uncommonly complementary crafts. “Combat Artist”, featuring high-quality ceramic mugs, unique packaging, pristine painted panels, and kindred graphics will bridge a gap that enhances relationships between these two worlds through a shared love of country and shared culture. The resultant works create fantastic windows into my military life communicating messages full of humor, patriotism, and love. I aspire to masterfully unite ceramic techniques with proven principles of design distributed across all mediums within my work, culminating …

Speaking My Truth: Voices And Portraits Of Honors Students Of Color, Leah Kerbs

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Founded in 1962, the Honors Program at Western Washington University has prided itself on the cornerstones of academic excellence, student growth, and a tight-knit Honors community. With class sizes averaging 18 students and a dedicated Honors living space, the program certainly provides students a unique opportunity to build closer relationships with professors and peers alike as they pursue their goals within a larger university setting.

However, like colleges and universities across the nation, the predominantly white program has struggled to meaningfully include the voices and experiences of its students of color. For many, their relationship with the program remains a …

Foreigner, Cancan Huang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis serves as supporting documentation for Foreigner, my MFA Thesis Exhibition. This exhibition reflects my experience as a foreigner, a solitary Chinese man living in the United States. Through embodying my personal experience, my paintings question the relationship between individuals and society.

The exhibition is composed of a series of paintings that visualize my personal story as a foreigner living in an incompatible and unacquainted culture. By displaying imagery of myself and my family in frozen moments, the paintings draw viewers into a discussion about personal identity, life philosophy, and culture collision. The exhibition and this thesis expand …

Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton

Scripps Senior Theses

I constantly experience external pressure to make identity-related artwork in response to the ongoing racial-reckoning occurring in the United States.

Initially, I was concerned with the pitfalls of creating identity-art. One of which being pigeon-held as a Black artist— whose sole function is to share my vulnerable experiences —and be commodified and diluted for superficial consumption. A Black artist whose work would only be valuable when institutions needed to satisfy a diversity quota, a Black History Month initiative or to conduct damage control after being “canceled.”

All of which may very well still happen. I’ve utilized this project to work …

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

Scripps Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …

Novaturient, Robert Tyler Willmore

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

John Muir famously said, "The mountains are calling and I must go." The yearning ache to visit and connect with natural wild landscapes is real. Through brush and pigment, I attempt to capture the mystery and wonder of wild landscapes that have inspired me to be a novaturient soul. The power of landscape is generally symbolic yet uniquely concrete. Exploring the balancing conflicts of nature has led me to comprehend the universe and my place in it.

By mimicking the naturalist who breaks down wild spaces into macro-focused observations, I translate my experience with landscape into relationships of line, shape, …

Mythology Of Uncertainty, Connor Johanson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

I think of my work as a mythology under constant revision that reevaluates our human perceptions of the natural world. The root of mythology comes to us from ancient Greek mythos. The original meaning of mythos was simply an account from memory–your mythos could be what your day was like, what happened and how you felt. We are all in the continuous process of building narratives of our individual lives, our cultures, and the world around us.

Human stories and values–mythos–underlie metaphors and analogies, meaning that no discussion of scientific ideas can be free of cultural bias. Discussion of symbiotic …