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Somewhere In The Universe: Senior Thesis 2022, Mallory Nelson

Honors Theses

My senior thesis, entitled Somewhere in the Universe, is an exploration of what makes a place believable, and how I as an artist can make something that doesn’t exist feel like it could. However, one of my favorite parts about art is its ability to be interpreted in unique ways. I may have had a set of intentions and ideas when creating this project, but I also am open to the ways different people interpret this art.

The conceptual basis of my thesis is an attempt at worldbuilding. These worlds are based on various Greek and Roman Goddesses from the …

Provenance, Jennifer Ann Mutch

Honors Theses

Provenance is a term used in art history to refer to the record of an artwork’s life after its creation: the paper trail it has left through time showing who has purchased it, sold it, moved it, restored it, displayed it. Provenance’s intertwined stories use the things we leave behind, both physical and digital, to explore absence, mother-daughter relationships, formative friendships, and personal identities.

Jane is a middle-aged woman whose mother-in-law, an artist named Francie, has just passed away unexpectedly, leaving her home to be cleared out. As she sorts through a lifetime of belongings and paintings, she continues …

Contemporary Handicraft, Textile Art, And Feminist Social Critique, Kaitlynn Blow

Honors Theses

My thesis looks at the work of female contemporary artists who use what has historically been considered “women’s craft” such as embroidery, knitting, stitching and other various textile arts. Since the Women’s Art Movement of the 1970s, women have used these creative outlets to express discontent and injustice in their lives revolving around gender and identity. In my research, three main themes emerged as addressed in each chapter. The first theme addresses the topic of domesticity and memory including unseen female labor, such as domestic chores and motherhood, and how fabric holds memories. Chapter two covers gender politics- specifically the …

5 Or 6 Amphibians: An Animated Short Film, Nicholas Lockwood

Honors Theses

My art project, “5 or 6 Amphibians”, explores a feeling I have had at Union - that of being split between too many things. It is six minutes of rotoscoped animation, presented on an array of nine screens. It is the culmination of my interest in time-based art, especially film and animation, as well as construction and technical knowledge.

Bridging Dimensions: A Robotic Art Project, Samantha Miller

Honors Theses

Spanning the divide between the humanities and STEM has been a pursuit of my undergraduate experience. In my senior project I seek to relate these disciplines through the creation of “automated canvases.” Resulting is a series of robotic art pieces that automate the opening and closing motion of Turkish map folds. These map folds then present a series of paintings displaying a tone of the uncanny and references to parallel universes. Utilizing robotics in my project allows the paintings to push further into a third dimension than normally possible. Providing literal motion to my traditionally two dimensional work requires consideration …

A Woman's Gaze, Emily Fiore

Honors Theses

My work merges my passion of thinking politically and artistically. This series, A Woman’s Gaze, is an extension of my Political Science thesis, where I focused on artists who combat the male gaze by representing women’s lives realistically, from a woman’s perspective. These paintings focus on intimate scenarios from women’s lives where the male gaze is absent. The large scale imagery brings visibility to these otherwise private moments.

The Federal Art Project: Intentions, Goals, And Legacy, Meghan Bentley

Honors Theses

Created under the umbrella program called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, the Federal Art Project (FAP) was a unique program that attempted to put struggling artists back to work and aimed to preserve artistic skill in American society. This thesis examines the efficacy and legacy of the Federal Art Project by examining the legitimacy of the criticisms levied against the FAP, the effect the FAP was able to have on the American public and arts community, and closes by examining the findings of these claims within the context of a collection of local FAP paintings. While …

Steel Sculpture: A Study Of Monumentality, Abigail Golodik

Honors Theses

This thesis is an exploration of steel sculpture and how each form varies in characteristics and prominence depending on size, shape, and color. I am inspired by graphic design and clean forms, and wanted to realize this aesthetic in my sculptures. The thesis work includes four steel sculptures made of two inch pipe and other maquettes and sketches to show the construction process.

Through sharp angles and clean lines, I play with perspective, making viewers feel the presence and tension of my forms. I begin with sketches, construct maquettes, and use these as a blueprint during the final production. Drawing …

Milestones, Naomi Letourneau

Honors Theses

My sculpture is inspired by cairns, mounds of rocks that represent a memorial or landmark and serve as markers along a trail. These sculptures were created combining digital fabrication and traditional sculpting methods. Inspired by milestones in my own life, the goal of this series is to encourage self-reflection in order to remind us that we all must find balance while on our own paths.

Film Stills, Kevin Jordan

Honors Theses

Film cinematography has always fascinated me, particularly the way composition, color, and lighting augment the subject's mood and can evoke an emotion out of viewers. I want to emulate this in my portraits, with the goal of transporting the viewers into another world.

Tanzanian Art: Attracting Tourism And Constructing A Packaged African Image, Ben Washburn

Honors Theses

Over the past thirty-or-so years, there has been a large increase of tourism in East Africa. In the coastal town Bagamoyo of Tanzania, many young men have made a career out of the tourist-industry – by producing tourist art. In this paper, I analyze the lives of local artists in Bagamoyo, as well as argue that they brand their art in particular ways that align with their ideas of tourist expectations and preconceived ideas of Africa. I argue that these artists practice different types of branding – primarily depicting Africa as primitive and wild, as they see producing art as …

A Culture Of Vaginas: Representations Of The Vagina In The 21st Century America, Kyra M. Detone

Honors Theses

In 1996, Eve Ensler opened her acclaimed, off-Broadway performance of The Vagina Monologues in New York City with these lines: “I bet you’re worried. I was worried. That’s why I began this piece. I was worried about vaginas.” These lines and Ensler’s monologues as a whole pose a provocative question for the modern woman, one that has been present in feminist dialogue since the late 1960s: Does the vagina have a community in American society? Nearly three decades after the first production of The Vagina Monologues, in what is argued to be a “post-feminist” period, scholars, writers, artists, and …

The Art Looting Investigation Unit: Finding Their Place In World War Two History, Marykate Farber

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the work done by the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) during World War Two. The ALIU was created as a subdivision of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), an American intelligence unit created during the war that was the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency. The ALIU men sought to collect and build on information regarding the Nazi “art looting machine”. As such, they bore a strong resemblance to the activities of the Museum and Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) commission (known as the “Monuments Men”). Thanks to a recent movie starring Matt Damon and George Clooney, …

Quiet Moments: My Artistic Exploration, Neena Jube

Honors Theses

I believe that fate led me to dive into my artistic study on the human form. I firmly believe all things happen for a reason. Every year, every day, every hour, every minute, and every second of my life play a significant role in how things turn out. Looking back on the past two decades, there have been numerous accounts that have brought me to where I am today. The classes I have taken and the interactions with various artists have led me to pursue art, one of my strongest passions, and have influenced the development of my current collection …

Electrophysiological Indices Of Aesthetically Stimulated Processes In Art-Experienced Individuals As Compared To Art-Naïve Individuals, Katharine E. Hartnack

Honors Theses

Aesthetic judgment processes were investigated in art-experienced and art-naïve individuals. Previous electrophysiological data suggest that aesthetic judgment is a two-stage process (Hofel & Jacobson, 2007). The first stage of aesthetic judgment is impression formation which is not spontaneous, and is reflected by an early Event Related Potential (ERP) frontocentral deflection. The second stage reflected by a lateralized late ERP positivity, evaluative categorization is also not spontaneous. Participants in the current study were instructed to either simply view black and white geometric patterns or were instructed to contemplate the beauty of the patterns. Results suggest that aesthetically stimulated processes differ between …

The Theatre As An Examination Of Power: Combining Political Theory And Theatre History, Richard A. Leahy

Honors Theses

Theatre and politics are intrinsically connected. The art of politics is extremely theatrical and the art of theatre has always been infused with political relationships. This congruity stems from the fact that both fields of practice originate from the same fundamental source: power. Both arts are different expressions of the same concept. This can be seen in the shared theatrical/political focus on argument; both theatre and politics have the same goal - convincing people by leading them to certain conclusions. Both politics and theatre necessitate getting others to believe what one is saying. The performer requires his audience to believe …