Digital Commons Network^™

Wanderlust, Yifan Qian

Theses

My work discusses fantasy coping and how I heal myself through it. I created a series of works through watercolor, glass and acrylic painting to express my inner state, through reality, fantasy, and the state between reality and fantasy, to present my mental state. My watercolor landscapes represent fantasy worlds, and I repeatedly prove to myself and the audience that this world is real through quantity. My realistic works represent the real world, I record my experiences in the real world, and why I need fantasy coping. My watercolor portraits and my glasses represent the fragile and unstable state between …

Painting As A Vehicle For Identity Formation And Survival, Chunbum Park

Theses

Through the thesis, I produce a highly rigorous body of works and explore the theoretical and philosophical reasons behind my paintings. I explore why I repeatedly paint myself as a woman and why the symbols of tigers, frogs, Frankenstein, and other aspects of Northeast Asian and Korean culture and heritage appear in my paintings. I find that painting is a process by which I can reflect on my own identity as a Korean who alternates between masculine and feminine identities. Painting allows me to react against the problems threatening my identity such as the worldwide trend of the racialization of …

Seeking The Sublime, Gretchen Ettlie

Theses

This thesis examines a search for the sublime. Definitions of the sublime have transformed over the centuries. In the modern era, that has come to encompass an idea of the Technological Sublime. This thesis will examine a more nature-centric idea of the sublime, with a thoughtful examination of the current digital culture and it’s impact. As we continue to become more distant from our natural world, and more immersed in the digital landscape, we miss opportunities to connect with our true nature and gain-first hand knowledge of the sublime understandings that nature can impart to us. This thesis explores our …

Edible Negros, Unique Fair-Smith

Theses

Edible Negros is an exploration of western consumerism and its impact on African-Americans. The thesis grapples with the oppression African-Americans have systematically experienced within capitalist and consumerist society and our collective struggles toward liberation.

This analysis goes further to study the western world's consumption of the black body, how African-Americans have been abused as a commodity; and as an overall examination of the western world's dependence on both the metaphorical and literal consumption of our bodies through labor exploitation, physical mutilation, and cannibalism.

Furthermore, the investigation encompasses how the perception and value of African-American lives has transitioned. This includes a …

Incidental Exposure, Laural Hartman

Theses

This thesis is an exploration of my lack of environmental and situational accessibility as a Deaf person. I will be identifying and highlighting how my life experiences differ from my hearing counterparts by utilizing visual elements from my personal collection that I’ve accumulated over the years. In this thesis, I will discuss how I give the viewer an interactive way to experience incidental exposure, what I learned about the importance of experimenting with different mediums and techniques, and how I found the combination of medium and technique that best emulates and reinforces the impression of my own incidental exposure. As …

Tactile Painting Easel: For People With Limited Vision, Yue Zhang

Theses

Visual art is probably the oldest art. But people with vision challenges have been held back, perhaps for many years by avoiding making art. However, it is never late to start and this painting system helps to paint with ease and joy. Through the researching about the behavior of people with visual disability, the conclusions are: Painting can help people with limited vision to face life in a more positive way; vision and touch are closely related. After the shape symbolism experiment and interview, the conclusion is people with visual disability understand the metaphors of the pictures. The mock blind …

Infinite Reflections Of Transition, Ellina Chetverikova

Theses

Coming from an international background, I often reflect on my transitional era coming to the United States from the Ukraine and finding a way to adapt. Creating the series of work In Between, I came up with the realization that I did not belong completely to either of the cultures. Instead, I was a child of the world. Change in life educates us by letting us to adapt to new situations and people. By changing the place where we live, the bigger picture opens up for us and we are able to see the world from many perspectives at the …

Deconstruction In Nature, Joseph Tarantelli

Theses

This paper describes the development of the artwork I created for my Thesis exhibition for an MFA in Fine Arts Studio at Rochester Institute of Technology. My initial inspiration to create came from the landscape. After finding a local scene that showed the growth of life in nature, I would paint the scene outside, or inside using a photo reference. In the winter of 2010, I used warm brown under paintings to contrast the subsequent layers of paint needed to depict the cold climate. As I painted, I worked to convey a unique interpretation of nature. The palette knife allowed …

Contemplative Reflections, Amy Vena

Theses

The collection of artworks encapsulated in the series of paintings, Contemplative Reflections, was completed for the M.F.A. thesis in the Fine Arts Studio program at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The artworks were influenced by similar concerns voiced by many of the romantic thinkers. Two essential components of this document are an investigation of theoretical consciousness, and the application of contemporary visual expression. Derived from romantic ideologies, the Hudson River school and the tonalist movement are often referred to in this document. Artists like Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole and Ralph Albert Blakelock are acknowledged for their representation and admiration …

Rhythmic Proportions, Ashley Billings

Theses

Rhythmic Proportions is a story about shifting the balance between logical structures and artistic freedoms. Manifested through paintings and found objects from a piano, my thesis negotiates a series of missions through an evolution of creative methodology in the interest of discovering new potentials. Propelled by the ideas of Mark Rothko, Michel Foucault and Immanuel Kant, I connect cognitive philosophies with my most forceful visual influences: the ancient works of Islamic architecture and the contemporary works of video artist Hiraki Sawa, painter Gopal Chowdhury, and sculptor Diana Al-Hadid. As my methods evolve, a more organic style gains momentum, however a …

Self, John Shea

Theses

"Self" is a record of developing an understanding of self-portraiture as a tool to tell a story. The resulting show from this body of work is a series of self-portraits completed in varying methods of ceramic firing and surface manipulation processes. This writing travels in order as the thesis developed, as I figured out how to tell a more direct story using my understanding of my surroundings, my relationship to my references, my peers, my professors, my hands and my history. "Self" is a record of the time I spent learning how to transform my material understanding of ceramics, my …

Transformative Reflections, Jose Portas

Theses

These written words represent the internal experiences that have comprised my inner self since my early childhood growing up in Montortal, Spain. In my mind there is an endless battle between the reality of consciousness and the surreality of the subconscious. I am trying to manage the challenges of the past, live in the present, and give the future a new understanding of how to connect and communicate through different genres with an emphasis on painting. The production of my work is meant to change how art is created and viewed today.

Zappers And Zingers, Adam Francey

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the influence of tattooing upon contemporary art. I will be exploring different aspects of tattooing and fine art and how they cross over into one another artistically, spirituality, technically, physically, mentally, and mechanically with painting and sculpture. Tattoo imagery is very important to me as well as fine art. I have been a professional tattoo artist for the last eight years and I have been making artwork since I was a small child. I have grown very accustom to tattoo imagery because I see, draw, paint, and tattoo it almost everyday. I …

The Liminalgraphic: Exploration In Change, John Ruggles

Theses

This thesis demonstrates my desire to understand the events of change that occur in life through a purposeful investigation into the roles of the artist as maker, and the concepts of liminal spaces. This is accomplished through a series of abstract paintings, which utilize the comparison of positive and negative spaces made through the use of natural processes such as melting and rusting, and the covering of an image with screen. The following artists are mentioned in reference to the development of my work: Andy Goldsworthy, Antony Gormley, and Robert Irwin. The objects that resulted represent a record of the …

The Image – By Any Means, Richard Minard

Theses

Art is inherently a reflection of the human condition. As I am working, my intention is to make images that, at the very least, capture the audience's attention. By adding layers and fracturing the images, I want the audience to see through various visual relationships. These visual relationships can be interpreted as a metaphor of the often hectic and unstable qualities of daily life. As the human figure is my connection to the work, it also serves as the viewer's connection. The blending of media and mixing up of figurative representation with abstraction is my attempt to challenge the viewer …

A Revelation Of Thought, Katherine Parks

Theses

This work is about self-exploration, reinvention, and constant evolution that result from questioning the reason for being. Throughout the whole creation process I have tried to reinvent myself, and evolve by questioning the purpose of existence. I use my work to depict emotions and feelings. Sculpture, monotype, and paint are the techniques I used for this recent body of work. Each is an intuitive, aesthetic response to the subject, both in color and surface, thus leading to further investigation of form and space. Through the inner struggle that takes place during the creation of each work of art, I convey …

A Glimpse Beyond The Real, Bradley Butler

Theses

This thesis demonstrates my desire to embrace the unknown and examine the boundaries between what is perceived as being real or imagined in my everyday life. This is accomplished through a series of abstract paintings, which utilize peripheral and fleeting images made through a process of intuitive push and pull of paint and drawing media on canvas. In the document surrealism is talked about and linked to my own practice as an artist. The following artists are also mentioned in relation to this series of work: Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Willem de Kooning, Pat Steir, and Anselm Kiefer. The compositions …

The Music Of Art, Chad L. Cleveland

Theses

Through the research of Jazz/Improvisational music I plan to investigate its' influence on my visual artwork. I also intend to demonstrate the interaction and relationship between the creation and performance of a piece of art. There seems to be a correlation between the elements of art and music which I am intrigued by. How are the elements of music translated into visual space? In the elements and principles of art there is a visual response waiting to be invoked. For the purposes of this writing, music is the muse. What takes place during the translation of listening, thought response, spirit …

Spontaneous Strategies, James D. Borders

Theses

My thesis body of work combines sculptures and paintings which are visual essays reflecting the interrelationships of color and form. The sculptures are simplified geometric shapes integrated with brilliant saturated color fields. This thesis is an investigation into the process of making art and the condition of receiving it. I have explored ideas produced through the experience of chance, color, movement, rhythm, and form with a cohesive vision evolving into a personal direction that enables experimentation without the loss of integrity.

What Surfaces From One, Danielle Johns

Theses

What Surfaces From One is an exploration of the emotive aspects of the human form. I present the figure at a vulnerable moment, in a compromising and often uncomfortable position. In life, people turn away from these awkward moments. My work presents the viewer with the opportunity to reconcile with the uneasiness and vulnerability of human experience. Through a body of prints and paintings I examine the fragility and ephemeral qualities of the human form.

Falling Mythologies, Melissa Mance-Coniglio

Theses

This thesis follows the exploration of the subject of falling within the context of mythology. This mythology is both a personal journey through the process of creating figurative paintings and one that explores archetypes from our cultural past. It links this journey through the process of painting to other artists who have explored their own subjective themes in their work and built relationships between representational work and abstraction. As these paintings have developed I have been driven by the desire to capture the transient nature of flesh and beauty. This seeking to preserve the fragments of movement and sentient being …

Sweet! Cartoons And Contemporary Painting, Sarah Atlee

Theses

I am an artist, and I use cartoons. My work consists mainly of images that communicate to the viewer through recognizable forms. I also use text to help tell my stories. I often create visual elements that function in place of text or information. I use a third visual tool, a hybrid descendant of images and words: the cartoon. Cartoons, once situated at the margins of visual discourse, now have a place in the fine art world. There are comics and animated television shows created for adult audiences. There are gallery and museum shows of work influenced by cartoons, not …

A Movement Towards A New Modernism, Ira Kusnetzky

Theses

None provided.

Techno-Whimsy, Liz Dodds

Theses

None provided.

Harmony, Yun Hsu

Theses

None provided.

Eastern Spirit In Western Form, Ming-Ru Tsai

Theses

None provided.

Configurations, Yelitza Serrano

Theses

None provided.

Pattern In Painting, Barbara Elsenheimer

Theses

None provided.

Masters Thesis, Sarah Laveck

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a visual language inspired by microscopic organic life forms. I will do this by creating and viewing slides underneath a microscope. From the microscope I will visually record what inspires me from that microscopic world. I will then use those drawings for inspiration and create paintings based on those life forms. Ultimately creating for myself a visual language of forms that I use to communicate artistically. Along with the scientific research of creating and viewing slides on the microscope, I will research abstract expressionists and color field artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Georgia …

Creativity And Renewal A Personal Journey, Tatiana Evanitsky

Theses

None provided.