Digital Commons Network^™

Creativity Beliefs Of Elementary Students: Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem And Beliefs In Between, Mollie E. Spardello

Art and Design Theses

Creative development in students is an important aim for the art educator. The visual arts class can be a realm for exploring and nurturing creativity in students. While all students may not grow up to produce works of art outside the classroom, visual arts education can impact a student’s understanding of their own creativity. This paper explores the creativity beliefs of elementary students. The research seeks to understand the implicit theories or beliefs of creativity that shape creative self-efficacy and what factors may influence these beliefs in students.

A Roadmap To Promoting And Marketing Artwork From A Veteran Visual Art Teacher's Perspective, Ann P. Dodys

Art and Design Theses

The advancement in technology in the twenty first century has introduced new and exciting ways for artists to self-promote their artwork while traditional methods remain viable. To be competitive in the art market an artist must understand and implement a variety of marketing strategies. Effective marketing is particularly critical for an art teacher who is also a practicing artist in order to sell their artwork. Through a comparative analysis of readily available marketing tools for artwork, I explore in this study a variety of ways that an artist can establish a successful career in art through the use of technology, …

New Ways Of Seeing: Examining Musuem Accessibility For Visitors With Vision Impairments, Wendy M. Sbarra

Art and Design Theses

While I have always loved to go to the art museum I have often found it difficult to convince friends and family to go with me. It seems to be a particularly daunting task for visitors with disabilities and specifically those with vision impairments. This study surveys the accessibility of the programming for visitors with visual impairments at 25 art museums in the United States of America and how they communicate that information to potential visitors. It highlights museums that go beyond what is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and create programming that is enjoyable for all. This …

Exploring Islamic Geometries, Maryam J. Al-Ainati

Art and Design Theses

Islamic design is a rich art form with spiritual and meditative meaning expressed through its infinite pattern. The iterative process of creating pattern, unified yet diverse, is an intri-cate geometric path conveying conceptual exploration. Process of form development in Is-lamic patterns defines its growing design, seeking explicit relationships between unity and multiplicity. As the grid expands and patterns unfold, new concepts are introduced for pat-tern exploration and formation. Reoccurring focal points of the Islamic geometries mark significant moments in which these patterns take form. By fusing traditional Islamic design fundamentals with contemporary concepts for interiors, I expand the realm of …

The Performance Of Femininity In The Works Of Yinka Shonibare Mbe, Rhonda L. Dano

Art and Design Theses

Current scholarship on contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare MBE focuses on analyzing his deconstruction of identities through ready-made cultural paradigms epitomized by the use of Dutch wax textiles as an expression of “African-ness.” Through subversive tactics, Shonibare creates disoriented views of power that unveil the masquerade of identity. What is often unstated within this critique, however, is the role of the feminine performance. From the swinging maiden to the ballerina sur les pointes, women and femininity maintain an indelible role in Shonibare’s production. Thus, by evaluating gender with greater precision, I will highlight Shonibare’s dependency on stereotypes of femininity and …

Fully Loaded, Laura M. Martin

Art and Design Theses

My ceramic sculptures are abstracted portraits of friends and family. They reveal no clues about the age, the gender, or the physical identity of the subjects. Instead, they are abstracted character traits rendered in clay with a biomorphic sensibility. I translate a particular personality trait of a friend or family member into a tangible object and arrange those pieces referencing botanical forms. I tend to choose the negative traits that cause friction in our relationship. My work is a way of acknowledging and dealing with the struggle these traits have caused. I structure my pieces as a floral arrangement to …

Where Do We Go From Here?, James M. O'Donnell

Art and Design Theses

Where do we go from here? is a video installation by Atlanta-based artist James O’Donnell that attempts to provoke others into similar contemplation of that existential question through an immersive video and audio installation exploring the self through references to the internal and external; past and future; and connection and disconnection.

Visiting (H)Ours, Jane G. Morrow

Art and Design Theses

This manuscript serves as a path through memory, through time and through experiences that have brought me to a personal understanding of death and dying and the immaculate resonance of the spirit. Tracing my way through my first experiences with death and loss, I dissect my emotional and physical journey towards complete solace and serenity facing tragedy and heartbreak. My work embodies my philosophy of maintaining a connection to loved ones through memory and through recording.

Esol Students In The Art Room: An Art Educator's Resource Guide, Amelia M. Netto

Art and Design Theses

The research conducted in this thesis is centered on the ESOL Hispanic student population, in the art classroom in Georgia. The information contained in this paper is meant to serve as a guide and resource for art educators with high populations of ESOL students in their classrooms. A review of current ESOL best practices in several content areas is included. Based on the research, guidelines and suggestions for accommodating these learners in the art room were developed, as well as a sample unit that includes three lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations and assessment rubrics.

On Yonder Mountain, Christopher D. Walter

Art and Design Theses

The road to becoming an artist is paved with much confusion as we try to mold our brains into understanding abstract concepts and ideas. I became fascinated with how people perceive art, in particular, southern males that have no previous knowledge of art history or desire to learn. I contemplated long and hard about this and asked myself the question, “What if they did want to understand art?” The only difference between my brethren and I is this desire to pursue this seemingly foreign world. By creating an imaginary world and culture based on my own southern upbringing I have …

Articulations Of Liberation And Agency In Yanagi Miwa's "Elevator Girls", Rachel P. Chamberlain

Art and Design Theses

Miwa Yanagi’s Elevator Girls series, a collection of glossy photographs featuring groups of similarly clad women lingering in expansive, empty arcades, made its international debut in 1996. While the pieces garnered positive reactions, Yanagi found that most Western viewers read her work as predominantly “Oriental”—confirming stereotypes of a highly polished techno-topic Japan that was still negotiating gender equality.

In this thesis, I explore alternative ways of reading Yanagi’s Elevator Girls series, which, I argue, call attention to myopic views of commercialism and identity in order to provide an alternative reading of these women as agents of transgression and ideological …

Glory Be Revival Of Neighborly Love, Calvin Burgamy

Art and Design Theses

This project is a video installation that includes filming the worship services of three small African American churches that exist within an area of rapid gentrification. Perhaps because of their tiny congregations, or racial makeup, these particular little churches seem hidden by a cloak of invisibility.

Subject To Change, Christina Price Washington

Art and Design Theses

Subject to Change is the culmination of a two-year investigation of the idea of home. This thesis discusses the journey of creating a home for my family and the work it spawned. Various cultural and artistic influences that shape the work include Grimm’s fairytales, my upbringing in Germany, Sigmund Freud, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Josef Beuys. This work reflects a situation and transforms material that takes on symbolic meaning.

Recontextualizing Neglected Space In Community, Catherine L. Normoyle

Art and Design Theses

Neglected areas are everywhere. They are seen as foreclosed homes, commercial properties, rundown lots and even small spaces like broken signage and over-sized potholes. My investigation, Abandonment ex-plores how graphic design can be used to identify neglected areas and add meaning that challenges exist-ing perceptions of these areas. This becomes a way to suggest revitalization without actually redesigning a specific space. Abandonment matches carefully designed phrases, inspired by first hand research of community members, with neglected urban environments of Atlanta. The camouflaged environmental graphics, created by means of DOT signs, chalk drawings, and blackboards recontextualize environments to softly build curiosity, …

On Coming Home, James D. Vanderpool

Art and Design Theses

In today’s society, more of the population is finding itself with multiple points of reference to what they consider as home. Anyone who finds they have more than one place that they feel tied to for one reason or another, considers the impact of these places on their identity. The scale of experience with the places where we live, visit and grow up influences the scale of impact upon our identity. Even a vacation or a visit to a certain place influences us, and thus also changes the place because we interact with it. I am showing, through sculptural and …

Epic Significance: Placing Alphonse Mucha's Czech Art In The Context Of Pan-Slavism And Czech Nationalism, Erin M. Dusza

Art and Design Theses

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Alphonse Mucha is primarily known for his early career producing Parisian Art Nouveau posters. However in 1910, Mucha left Paris to return to his home in the Czech lands where he concentrated on creating works for his country. Unfortunately, the later part of his career receives little to no attention in most art history books. His collection, The Slav Epic, represents ideas of Pan-Slavism, patriotism, and national identity. A leading scholar …

Putting Lipstick On A Sculpture, Kelly A. O'Brien

Art and Design Theses

Putting Lipstick on a Sculpture is a mixed body of sculptural and two-dimensional work investigating our society’s superficial expectations of beauty. The glitzy covers of glitter and spandex are used over more traditional structural materials to confuse the viewer’s expectations, much like labels categorizing usual fine art. The sculptures are on display for the audience’s aesthetic judgments, while paintings blur lines of what is classified as traditional and acceptable for emphasis.

91 Days, Candice M. Greathouse

Art and Design Theses

91 Days is a multi-channel video installation composed over a period of ninety-one days, and comprised of thousands of photographs. The photographs create a visual archive of the daily experiences of the home. The corresponding text discusses the link between privacy and self-representation, specifically in relation to the family album.

Pedestrian, Meta E. Gary

Art and Design Theses

PEDESTRIAN is inspired by my daily walking routines and my relationship to the spaces in which I walk. Through additional instruction-guided walks with volunteers, this project examines the seemingly mundane travels of walkers and their relationship to and absorption of the space around them, and encourages a reconsideration of the environmental everyday into a venue for play and discovery.

(Unrelated), Bethany Collins

Art and Design Theses

(Unrelated), a series of language-based works made up of chalkboard drawings, dictionary erasures and accumulations of text, highlights the inability of language to fully capture notions of modern racial identity. Rather, in (Unrelated), definitions are hidden, revealed, allowed and humored, but rarely settled. It is natural to seek delineation between oneself and all else, but it is a particularly persistent urge for those who engage in the pursuit of racial clarity. In To Be Real, an essay which heavily influenced this body of work, Danzy Senna writes: “Growing up mixed in the racial battlefield of Boston, I yearned for …

Beads Of Empowerment: The Role Of Body Art In Challenging Pokot Gender Identities, Jennifer R. Fleischman

Art and Design Theses

Pokot female body art identifies a woman’s beauty, husband, and social rank among the Pokot community through color, pattern, and mass. In the last sixty years, as a result of Kenya’s entrance into the global economy, Pokot women have turned a “traditional” art form into a commodity, creating a product for Western tourists that, in turn, provides Pokot women with a means to earn income that is less readily under male control. Pokot women consciously create beadwork that alludes to the “Idea of Africa,” while also conforming to Western standards of “colonial chic.” The result is a body art that …

Invitation, In Kyoung Chun

Art and Design Theses

This thesis is a statement about a series of paintings based on an invented dollhouse object that conveys the artist’s identity and placement in the world. Through this essay, the artist represents the home as a space that fosters the recovery and rebirth of invisible energy, ki and examines ideas of transience, interconnection, and rebirth in the mysterious flow of ki in the home. Also the artist will explain her own view about being an artist, the methodologies and specific techniques of her paintings, and her artistic direction for the future.

A Renegotiation Of The Role Of The Artist In The 1950s Era Of Mechanical Reproduction: The Early Careers Of Jasper Johns And Robert Rauschenberg, Rebekah S. Scoggins

Art and Design Theses

Although Walter Benjamin argues printed materials are without traditional art authority or aura, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg’s work exists in the tradition of high art despite their use of mass-produced materials. Johns and Rauschenberg rely on the distracted attention of the viewer in the age of reproduction to engender reassessment of materials in their works. They use objects that contribute to the new distracted audience but create works that force the viewer toward intense contemplation; their works also combat trends Benjamin identifies to stake their claim as artists of original works while remaining relevant to the modern era. Johns …

My Trip To Notan, James M. Chapman

Art and Design Theses

My Trip to Notan charts my own journey from the rawness and acceptance of multiple life losses into understanding, and finally, renewal. The key result of this project is a prototype book, a 48-page digital Print-On-Demand (POD) publication, which also includes a DVD that inserts into book’s back and features live demonstrations, interviews and other segments related to the book. Additionally, the body of work from which the book was gleaned was presented at the thesis exhibition. Ultimately, My Trip to Notan is a sketch of my understanding of the framework that threads through design, physics and philosophy, inspired by …