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Art and Design

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Virginia Commonwealth University

Theses and Dissertations

Mixed media

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Bounded Surface, Emilie Sayward Brown Jan 2008

Bounded Surface, Emilie Sayward Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between surface, perception, and structure has occupied my graduate studies. Locating, transforming, and transcending the surface requires play with perceptive abilities not only of vision, but of touch, hearing, and the other senses as well. How do the interactions of sense with the qualities of a surface determine our perception of the world? What role does the extension of the senses play in one's ability to perceive surface and structure? Using sense information gleaned from surfaces, the tectonics of our world are made visible. Might this relationship be played backwards as well? Composed structures produce surfaces upon which …


Reunion: A Journey Through History, Symbolism, And Fear, Vanessa Laure Fassie Jan 2007

Reunion: A Journey Through History, Symbolism, And Fear, Vanessa Laure Fassie

Theses and Dissertations

The contents here in examine the artistic process undertaken by Vanessa Fassie to create the mixed media work, reunion. The subjects of fear, archetypal symbolism, personal and collective histories were examined through research, archival evidence, video, sound, movement, and installation. reunion, examines not only the powers of personal and collective histories through the symbolic language of archetypes, but also how fear manifests and evolves through time. The culmination of this work was the creation of an installation within the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University. This Thesis was created through the use of Microsoft Word 2004.


In Search Of The Ooey Gooey Good, Lauren Ashley Clay Jan 2007

In Search Of The Ooey Gooey Good, Lauren Ashley Clay

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores ideas of everydayness, the mundane, and the repetitive emptiness of consumer culture. It looks at the malaise that plagues everyday life and examines several attempts throughout history to break from its grips which revolve around a search for a more ideal state. This research includes utopias of modernism, the transcendental, the communal living of Shakers and Early Christians, ascetic monks and The Desert Fathers. These ideas have shaped my studio practice as I construct installations based on worlds which allude to the eternal, the otherworldly, and the fragility of our physical world when compared to more eternal …


Toward A New Kinship Constellation, Nellie Helen Frances Appleby Jan 2007

Toward A New Kinship Constellation, Nellie Helen Frances Appleby

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to elaborate on my artwork during my graduate studies, while contextualizing it within the framework of the art world and the works of other artists. A main project during this time was to minimize the singular interpretation and framing of a fine art photographic print, while expanding its possibilities of meaning through the addition of important ephemera and objects such as plants, drawings, moving imagery, conversation and the unknown.


Through My Eyes, Candace B. Conklin Jan 2006

Through My Eyes, Candace B. Conklin

Theses and Dissertations

I am the one my friends call the creepy one. My art is not pretty or happy. It is an expression of my inner feelings and thoughts. I don't make pretty pictures because I find them void of true emotional substance. I developed my point of view when I photographed my eyes, which have become a consistent theme in my work. Eyes are the window to the soul and the key to my inner emotions. I have since expanded my work to include other images. I continue to seek ways to help my viewers experience my work both emotionally and …


From The Edge, Leslie Corder Rousseau Jan 2006

From The Edge, Leslie Corder Rousseau

Theses and Dissertations

Paintings and drawings are the physical representations of my dialogue with the world around me. Art is how I connect to what is too large, or too vague, or too personally meaningful to express in any other way. Space and its transformation by light and color have always been central to this dialogue. I am particularly intrigued by spatial ambiguity. Space exists for us only in how it relates to us and so, space changes. One viewpoint or state of mind might make space seem freeing, while another makes the same space feel confining. Barriers are sometimes delineated, sometimes obscured. …


Innate, Kiara Pelissier Jan 2006

Innate, Kiara Pelissier

Theses and Dissertations

I often think of life as a tight rope stretching across an expanse. Our inner strength enables us to walk forward across it. When this fails us, we fall. But in those moments when we prevail, we soar and float as though weightless and timeless. As a gymnast I learned that control of one's insecurities results in a powerful and balanced presence of body. Give into them and the body becomes uncertain and clumsy. Rarely is life this transparent. Many forms of tension manifest themselves in physical, spiritual, and emotional unrest. How does the physical contour of the skin reflect …


Everyday Haunting, Thomas John Condon Jr. Jan 2006

Everyday Haunting, Thomas John Condon Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This document outlines a journey of self-exploration, discovery, construction and destruction. It is a story of learning, a testament to impermanence, and a proposal for possibility. The words and work contained in this document are exclusive to the thoughts and actions of one man that hopes to share with others.


Undone, Julie J. Johnson Jan 2006

Undone, Julie J. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

My art has become rooted in a process of layering. I layer materials to explore technique and to express the concept of inside versus outside. The evidence of multiple layers of materials is symbolically connected to what is happening within my own life. I want the viewer to see an indication of deeper layers of process and materials rather than just the polished surface of an artwork. This layering process can also be seen as a metaphor for human nature, what we see on the outside is not always what is on the inside.


Kick Me, Jennifer Stackpole Jan 2006

Kick Me, Jennifer Stackpole

Theses and Dissertations

Human experience, particularly the trials and tribulations of growing up, is the foundation on which I build. In this body of work, I represent these somewhat unsettling times. I use flattened space, strong diagonals, and vibrant color to add energy to the compositions. An underlying structure of fragmented shapes suggests the incomplete nature of adolescence.


Codes Of Interaction, Timothy Michael Martin Jan 2005

Codes Of Interaction, Timothy Michael Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The ideas within this thesis are meant to clarify my explorations, research and painting practice during my studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. I expand on my general statements about being fascinated by advancing technologies and concerned about the after effects of these advancements. The writing explores my curiosity about the internal, skeletal structure of things and how they operate. I explain how the paintings are idiosyncratic hybrids that evoke animation, imaginary scientific propositions, blueprints, maps, and advancing technologies. The work combines these interests with my observations of day-to-day experiences. Isolated events provide found compositions which I then manipulate: a seemingly …


The Effect Of Man On The Landscape And The Effect Of Land On The Manscape: Or Contingent Plans For Knowing A Mountain, Taylor Scott Baldwin Jan 1988

The Effect Of Man On The Landscape And The Effect Of Land On The Manscape: Or Contingent Plans For Knowing A Mountain, Taylor Scott Baldwin

Theses and Dissertations

In my artistic practice, I emphasize personal and pan-cultural anxieties regarding civilization and the environment as an impetus for work in sculpture, video, and drawing. By locating marginal microcosmic subject matter that tellingly exhibits macrocosmic global dread, I seek to capture and distill our overwhelming eco-socio-political anxiety into a portrait of a society at a point in its history when the specter of nameless impending disaster weighs pressingly on the collective psyche. This thesis is supplementary to my work of sculpture in the Graduate School of the Arts Thesis Exhibition at the Anderson Gallery opening on April 27th, 2007. The …