Alcea, Autumn Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

This exhibition was created with the intent to investigate and celebrate gender fluidity in both nature and humanity by depicting one plant, the hollyhock, whose reproductive parts share a structure that changes from male to female as the plant matures. Alcea consists of prints, drawings, and installations that showcase the hollyhock in each stage of its transition.

Winding Down River Road, Gillian Harper

LSU Master's Theses

As a mechanism to explore my temporary home in Louisiana, Winding Down River Road is a collection of artworks that integrates natural materials collected from landscapes in southern Louisiana with steel and petroleum-based products. My interest in researching environmental issues, ecology, and industry has shaped my vehicles for observation and how I generate data. Through a variety of methodologies, I am considering how climate change is forcing many of us to re-contextualize how our home can be affected by the very industries we rely on. Personal engagement with residents living in the dystopian atmosphere of southern Louisiana’s industrial corridor and …

Entities: A Field Of Imaginary Games, Thrasyvoulos Ioannis Kalaitzidis

LSU Master's Theses

With this body of work, I am looking for visual symbols that help communicate unuttered meanings through storytelling and stimulate an affectual response to the viewer. This exploration is presented in two different forms: a surreal sculptural installation and a board game. The installation consists of large-scale sculptures made from light and soft materials (polyurethane foam, plastic waste, paper) that are available to move inside the gallery, while the board game is presented as a set of 3D prints with instructions on how the participants can play it. The materials used in the installation suggest a way to transform waste …

Tiempo De Hibridos, Paul Acevedo Gomez

LSU Master's Theses

Tiempo De Hibridos is a body of work that celebrates the multiplicity of my shifting identity. It navigates back and forth between two different worlds, each packing different experiences that become a crossbreed or hybrid of information. Using historical references, pop culture, and personal experiences, I create a narrative story that maneuvers through familiar and foreign spaces.

The images suggest a celebration of cultural identity, vitality, but also psychological pain. I purposely combine objects that can be perceived as conflicting, altering their function to reference elements that are both playful and painful. The viewer should question the combination of objects …

Sulfur And Sage, John Swincinski

LSU Master's Theses

Sulfur and Sage is a body of abstract paintings created out of memories of time spent immersed in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains and the Yellowstone Caldera during the summer of 2020. The paintings reflect specific places, experiences, and insights, which occurred as I sought solitude by returning to the one place where I feel most at peace with the universe – the woods.

Each painting is augmented by a written vignette, describing the occurrence it is based on. Should the viewer choose to include these short stories as they encounter the artwork, they provide the jumping off point …

The Undiscovered Country, Luke A. Atkinson

LSU Master's Theses

The Undiscovered Country is a compendium of paintings, prose, and poetry that defines the place of creation. This work is a response to life as I find it, in as honest and truthful a way as my ability allows. Sergei Prokofiev said, “The more the sea rages, the more precious a hard rock among the waves becomes.” My paintings are solid rocks that I cling to. Hopefully, someone else can too.

The Stylistic Development Of Jean Despujols (1886-1965), Kelly M. Ward

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the life and most extant works by Jean Despujols. The French and later naturalized American painter, writer, poet, philosopher, deep-thinker, and mystic was best known for his Neoclassical and academic style. This thesis briefly discusses the artist’s beginnings as a young painter at the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux and in Paris, his sketches in the trenches of the First World War, his time at the Villa Medicis after winning the distinguished Rome Prize, and his paintings and thoughts as a philosopher and political writer throughout his life. An outstanding …

Fun House, Stephanie Cobb

LSU Master's Theses

The expression “fun house” seems empathetic and joyful, but has potentially melancholy connotations. Fun houses are participatory. They allow guests to move freely through their colorful halls. At the same time, they do not organize guest’s experience. Usually, we are thoughtful of all possible contingencies that make the world so unpredictable. We prefer certainty to doubt and try to avoid risks. However, reason and order have limits. To feel alive, we must take risks. The connotation of the paintings in Fun House may imply either a sunny mood through tenderness between figures or a tense ambivalence that lingers in their …

Hello Again يا اهلا A Study Of Grief, Diana Abouchacra

LSU Master's Theses

Grief is an unwanted visitor who we all come to know throughout our lifetime. Although every person reacts differently to bereavement of a loved one, almost always the lost other becomes etched into our being for the remainder of our lives (McClocklin & Lengelle, 2017). In today’s society, we are encouraged to say “Good-bye”, but what if instead, we allow ourselves to keep those who have passed on close to our hearts and say hello again? Hello Again يا اهلا is a body of work that explores my experience with grief. The artworks made for this exhibition investigate my process …

The Second Line Parade And The Construction Of Identity Through Costume In The Group The Undefeated Divas, Gents And Kids., Suellen Da Costa Coelho

LSU Master's Theses

This research aims to investigate the role of costume in identity formation in the second line group The Undefeated Divas, Gents and Kids. The methodology used in this research was data collection through interviews with members of the group. Through these interviews, we seek to establish the importance of costume in reflecting and constructing a sense of community within the group.

While the existing literature focuses on the history of second line parades and their importance in Louisiana’s culture, this research intends to explore costume’s meaning and significance. The purpose of this work is to complement the existing literature in …

Yours Always, Always Yours, Emery Kate Tillman

LSU Master's Theses

The body of artwork discussed in this paper deals with the navigational process of the actualization of my own desires and needs in an intimate capacity specifically relating to my own queer identity. In this paper I will address the use of certain forms throughout the work as well as color and material choices. Yours Always, Always Yours is a thesis project produced as the final requirement of Louisiana State University’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program.

Alternative Methods, Hunter Stabler

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

In the realm of precognitive artmaking, the artist’s role is that of an antenna. One must be receptive to the subtle, invisible flow of creative novelty in order to participate in the involuntary channeling of new ideas, new processes, and alternative methods of creative production. Carving out new territory within the realm of static art is a primary objective for my artistic process. By utilizing digital fabrication tools, paired with my affinity for intricate craft and optical metagrobolization, I have created a body of work that invents alternative processes and unique aesthetic languages.

Digital imaging, digital modeling and digital …

So Long, Sinkhole City!, Heather Molecke

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract

A sinkhole is land that appears structurally sound, but underneath its surface lacks foundation. If there is not enough support for the land above, a sudden collapse of the surface happens. Sinkhole City is a conceptual three-part installation that metaphorically conveys experiences of childhood sexual abuse, incarceration in adolescent psychiatric hospitals, and young adult drug addiction. This work illuminates and explores the relationship between childhood trauma and drug addiction.

Sinkhole City takes the viewer on a journey through semi-autobiographical life passages. In this three-part installation assemblage I am confronting my own sense of past shame, the emotional roller coaster …

A Cup Of Breast Milk And A Warm Chair, Carlie A. Salomons

LSU Master's Theses

The work in the exhibition A Cup Of Breast Milk and A Warm Chair is a physical and ephemeral connection between mothers and daughters. It explores my personal connection to my maternal lineage. This connection is looked through the lens of common generational roles of women, ancestral inheritance and my childhood memories. I consider what it means to inherit and to be remembered outside of the standard androcentric genealogical structure. My inheritance from my maternal lineage comes in the form of women’s work, or handcrafts such as: crochet, knitting and sewing. In creating this body of work, I blend the …

Creating Coping Mechanism: An Anatomy Of A Gallery-Based Installation And Performance Work, Jamie M. Kutner

LSU Master's Theses

The project described in this paper is an exhibition of gallery-based durational performance art, and resulting three-dimensional artifacts, that was created through a tangled process of relapse and recovery from mental illness. The first section of this paper peers into the parameters of ephemeral artistic practice. I discuss the process of merging my recovery and creative practice through performance art, and then parse the discussion of the work into the categories of performer, audience, site, and time. Section II details various aspects of spectator experience through a second-person narrative tracing the crowd flow of the exhibition. I conclude with an …

Taking (Birth) Control: Empowerment Through Contraceptive Education, Meghan Saas

LSU Master's Theses

TAKING (birth) CONTROL is a body of work that educates women on their options for contraceptives, and empowers them to claim their right to choose if—and when—to have a child. Utilizing graphic design and letterpress printing processes, I created a visual system consisting of carefully honed typographic, color, and graphic styles. The bulk of the materials make up an educational toolkit for use at Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge, one of only three remaining abortion providers in Louisiana. Delta Clinic was in need of comprehensive and affordable materials for their patients on the subject of contraception. The toolkit consists of …

Altar To Uncertainty, Kelly Stombaugh

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

I have always been in awe of great storytellers. Like an alchemist, the masterful storyteller can take the most mundane of tales and transmute it into an enrapturing experience. The best of these, however, are the stories which seem very otherworldly but, in the end, can reveal deep and relatable truths to the listener.

For this exhibition, “Altar to Uncertainty,” I have undertaken the creation of a single book and story which surrounds and visually extends itself through printed etchings upon the walls to tell a transformative tale of redemption through trauma, hopelessness and loss.

My intention with this …

Scavenge, Jessica B. Thames

LSU Master's Theses

Scavenge is an installment that blurs the boundaries of found and altered materials. What I define as "Left-overs" are abandoned materials taken from an enigmatic history. These Left-over objects are minimally altered, stacked or placed carefully pertaining to visual characteristics of the object, as well as the spatial relationship between each object inside the gallery. My work refuses to settle. Transporting an object from a large outdoor grouping into a gallery space changes our perception of the object. The newly created interior arrangement in the gallery space contrasts the arbitrariness of objects found in nature or discarded, inviting a viewer …

In-Between: The Spaces Of Modernity, Elisa Fabris Valenti

LSU Master's Theses

During the past three years as a graduate student, I have experienced loneliness. Having recently emigrated from Italy, I have often asked myself why I am experiencing such hard times adjusting to a different country. My thesis explores this question. Referring to Marc Augé’s idea of non-place, I have chosen a geographical and spatial starting point to approach my work. Italian cities are built around the central piazza where social, political, and economic life revolves. In my thesis, I depict American spaces that lack specific location and create solitude within the urban corridors. Private feelings, such as loneliness, are paradoxes …

Scattered Feathers, Dason Sebastian Pettit

LSU Master's Theses

Scattered Feathers is the story of a ghost that lives in the imagination now: the ivory-billed woodpecker. Those that know this bird call it the God Bird or Grail Bird because of its mythic stature. This thesis is also a story about the loss and obsession that can fuel human pursuits. It is a study in observation and subsequent mythmaking, an examination of extinction and preservation. Perhaps most of all it is a chronicle of entropy and the cyclical nature of our existence. The visual work herein examines the mythos of the ivory-billed woodpecker, its once pristine environment and the …

Trace, Naomi Katy Louise Clement

LSU Master's Theses

The pots in the exhibition Trace speak both to my desire to belong, to connect to my beginnings, and yet to still trace my own path forward; they are about making connections and missing connections. Through these pots I ask questions of myself and the world around me in an attempt to negotiate the edges of my life. How do I feel connected and present in my own life and relationships? How do I feel connected to my family and my roots, while still finding my own path? What does it mean to belong in a family that is divided …

Collecting And Selecting, Masy Hebert

LSU Master's Theses

In Collecting and Selecting, I am exploring the way others adorn their lives and how these elements add up to emblematize the keeper of the treasures. With linoleum relief prints and drawings, I compose a unique type of portraiture that reveals the parallel identity between the way we dress ourselves and our living spaces. Within my process, I capture moments with photographs, draw, carve, print, and cut out the elements that hold a presence of the owner. Utilizing a heightened sense of contrast with black and white images, the textures and details of these objects come alive. Each gallery wall …

Oblivion, Michael Stumbras

LSU Master's Theses

I am fascinated by the myriad ways humans construct meaning in the face of existential uncertainty. For the exhibition Oblivion, I endeavor to provide a gallery experience, a body of metaphorically charged functional vessels, and a number of ritualistic accoutrements that address death, futility, and the passage of time as it inexorably flows toward obsolescence. The process of handcraft and the method of firing that I employ highlights the absurdity of the endeavor of the handmade: the seemingly futile and interminable quest for perfection and meaning. This futilitarian pottery exaggerates the errors of the hand and flaunts artifacts of the …

The Truth About Your Monsters, Cassidy Creek

LSU Master's Theses

The Truth About Your Monsters is an immersive and dialogical exhibition formatted as a walk-through storybook environment. Viewers are transported into a child’s make believe world through hands-on stations. By building on the skeleton of an archetypal narrative, audience members are encouraged to tap into their own experience as they contribute imagery and action to the narrative. I call on audience members to discuss personal or universal fears by prompting them to draw images of monsters that represent their fear.

One Two One, Brianna Morgan Ozanne

LSU Master's Theses

These things, they speak in whispers. Come close, lean in, listen up. Whisper back. Tell me everything. I know you’ve been here, too. I know you’ll understand. I know you have a shoebox full of memories just like these hidden deep inside your closet. I know.

Dislocation, Brian Randall Deppe

LSU Master's Theses

This photographic project, Dislocation, seeks to document the current state and decline of Cortana Mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The mall was built in 1976 during the height of shopping mall construction and was one of the largest shopping centers in the country with five anchor stores and 139 retail spaces. Now, just 48 stores and two anchor stores remain open. This high vacancy rate and deterioration of the mall is due to suburban flight, the building of new shopping centers in southern Baton Rouge, and changing consumer trends, which has led to malls closing across the country. My photographs …

Lines, Tina Korani

LSU Master's Theses

Sometimes one is unaware of one thing: a rule, a boundary, a difference — all of which we cannot see with our eyes, but learning certainly present. When one rcognizes the reality of it, decisions are made. Those decisions shape the world as we know it. “Beyond the Lines” is an exploratory project that aims to increase one’s awareness and reveal that humans are whole beings that can surpass barriers that life places in front of them. This thesis explores human connections and separations, by using the concept of dots and lines, in ways both literally and metaphorical. Through visual …

Coasteering, Adam James Meistrell

LSU Master's Theses

Coasteering: (noun) An adventure sport tasked with defining and exploring boundaries and coastlines. Adam Meistrell’s artwork is an invitation to interpret evidence and inspiration through making, investigation, and utility. He utilizes a variety of working methods to interpret evidence and share his understanding.

Dig, Spin, Repeat, Brittany Anne Sievers

LSU Master's Theses

Dig, Spin, Repeat, is a body of process based installation objects that uses minimalistic aesthetics placed strategically in the gallery to highlight the architecture of the room. By connecting these unique architectural elements, the work aims to achieve mindfulness similar to the research of Ellen Langer: encouraging active observation. Drawing from my background in sports and factory work, I create multiple repetitive forms out of hand-spun yarn and sourced clay. The room-sized installation objects produced from these raw materials explore the value of staying in the present moment for both the viewer and myself.

After;Life, Morgan Lynn Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

After;life is an exploration of the time and space between life and death. The installation, created from dozens of woodcut prints, creates this imaginary place, and encompasses viewers through sight, smell, sound, and touch. All elements of this installation are heavily influenced by Southern Louisiana culture and wildlife, and are meant to be familiar enough to provoke personal memory and experience. A set of rituals in the form of three poems, corresponding to three different spirit guides: The Black Dog, The Alligator, and The Opossum, lead the reader through the space from life, through liminal, into death.