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Articles 31 - 60 of 61
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What Crawls Beneath, Brent L. Gneiting
What Crawls Beneath, Brent L. Gneiting
Theses and Dissertations
Nature is full of mysterious creatures which fascinate and spark imagination. In my final project, What Crawls Beneath, I take a closer look at what drives my interest in creatures that simultaneously attract and repel. Drawing on inspiration from parasites and dinosaurs, I was able to create a piece that represents the danger and beauty that nature so masterfully brings together. The importance of process is discussed as I consider the traditional methods of working with clay and how they affect the outcome of the artwork.
Joy In Nature, Rebecca Morgan
Joy In Nature, Rebecca Morgan
Theses and Dissertations
Artist Statement I am fascinated with colors in nature and how it affects our moods. The colors of a sunset and moonlit sky; the feeling of a brewing storm; the laziness of a cold, gray day; the roar of an ocean; and the feel of sand on your feet are elements that I want to capture in my drawings and paintings. In addition to the natural environment, animals are an integral part of nature that I incorporate in my work. Pets are the unspoken blessings that bring joy and laughter to my life. Pets, especially dogs, are proven to relieve …
Cross-Cultural Ecotheology In The Poetry Of Li-Young Lee, Sienna Miquel Palmer Dittmer
Cross-Cultural Ecotheology In The Poetry Of Li-Young Lee, Sienna Miquel Palmer Dittmer
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis explores the cross-cultural ecotheology of contemporary American poet Li-Young Lee by looking at the intersection of the human, the natural, and the sacred in his poetry. Close readings of Lee's poetic encounters with roses, persimmons, trees, wind, and light through the lens of Christianity and Daoism illustrate the way Lee is able to merge the Eastern concepts of interconnection and mutual harmony with Western ideas of sacredness and divinity. This discussion places Lee in direct conversation with modern and contemporary ecopoets who use the creative energy of language to express our moral and ethical responsibility to the world …
Redefining Self In The Midst Of "Things": Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, Kristin Lowe
Redefining Self In The Midst Of "Things": Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, Kristin Lowe
Theses and Dissertations
In this essay, I examine the role of material culture in Marilynne Robinson's novel Housekeeping (1980) to understand how the prominent presence of material culture introduces complex questions about the relationships among objects, reality, and the self. By recognizing objects' fluidity of meaning, Housekeeping offers its characters a way to see their individuality and conceptions of reality in a similar state of flux. Significantly, it is in the act of recognizing that the socially accepted uses of objects are not necessarily "natural" parts of existence, and, like elements of the natural world, the meanings and uses of these items are …
Outside Things, Jacob Sorenson
Outside Things, Jacob Sorenson
Theses and Dissertations
My thesis is a description of the issues encountered during the process of research and construction of the objects leading to, and consisting of, the work shown in Outside Things. The work is my attempt to gain personal insight into the complicated relationship between nature and culture. Through abstract furniture objects, floral patterns, and robots I explore the relationship between actual landscape and the constructed man-made bio-mimicry that convolutes the definition of Nature.
Earth Forms, Janelle Marie Tullis Mock
Earth Forms, Janelle Marie Tullis Mock
Theses and Dissertations
Earth Forms narrates and explains the Masters Project Exhibition by the same name. The sculptures included in the exhibition, Earth Forms, use a variety of personal symbols centered on one stylized human head. Some of the symbols included are antlers, branches, coral, leaves, plants and stones. Each of these symbols represents personal ideas of balance, growth and decay. They also represent the earth from which we are formed and the earth to which our bodies will return at the end of life.
The Level Of The Beasts That Perish: Animalized Text In Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's Helen Fleetwood, Christie Anne Peterson
The Level Of The Beasts That Perish: Animalized Text In Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's Helen Fleetwood, Christie Anne Peterson
Theses and Dissertations
Although Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's 1839 social reform novel Helen Fleetwood has long been understood as a commentary on the dehumanizing effects of factory work, her use of animals to represent factory workers has not been considered in analyses of her depictions of dehumanization. Considering both the growing interest in the animal/human divide during the early nineteenth century and Tonna's own direct contributions to discussions about animals, in this essay I examine the role that animals play in negotiating definitions of humanity and nature in the novel. I argue that idealized, "Edenic" animals and corrupted, "industrial" animals are integral to Tonna's …
A Brush With Nature, Laurie Hoen
A Brush With Nature, Laurie Hoen
Theses and Dissertations
My work investigates both the objective and the subjective nature of my intimate relationship with nature. I explore my embrace of both art and science, the realistic and the abstract in my search for the immanence of goodness in creation. From a grain of pollen to a beautiful blossom to a decaying pod, the natural world celebrates life’s insistence on recreating itself. All around me, nature is quietly dancing to a peaceful song of restoration and balance that offers me hope of a continuance and beauty in spite of the neglect I sometimes offer in return. My recent work, in …
Bottom Creek, Bent Mountain, Va, Genesis Chapman
Bottom Creek, Bent Mountain, Va, Genesis Chapman
Theses and Dissertations
The title of this thesis Bottom Creek, Bent Mountain, VA is the subject of my large ink drawings. Starting with the spring outside my window, this book describes the creeks as it flows across the mountain that I grew up on. My drawings document the experience of walking along the banks of Bottom Creek as it flows past farms fields and along the roadside. Described as a seemingly insignificant place, the creek is in fact it is one of the most basic, and important parts of this mountain’s landscape, because the creek’s natural process it is responsible for producing the …
Modernity And The Good Death: Heidegger And Jose, Anna M. Jensen
Modernity And The Good Death: Heidegger And Jose, Anna M. Jensen
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis will analyze José Clemente Orozco's mural The Epic of American Civilization in terms of the problem of suffering. It will focus specifically on two panels, “Human Sacrifice in Ancient Times” and “Human Sacrifice in Modern Times.” This analysis will comprehend not only the works of art within their historical context, but also within Martin Heidegger's philosophical discussion of the question of suffering. Heidegger presents a unique perspective on the question of human suffering when he writes that Western humans have forgotten how to “dwell.” This dwelling is defined by Heidegger's novel conception of ontology as relational rather than …
Nature Calls, Angela White
Nature Calls, Angela White
Theses and Dissertations
I am wandering wonderingly through the unplanned material atmosphere shaped by differences in temperature and moisture. The chaotic nature of weather phenomena is the catalyst for visual exploration of the subterranean catacombs of reality. The work is metaphor of nature and its creation of form and substance. Observing art and nature: I am allowing nature to be the instigator of art.
Finding Myself Here, Cari Freno
Finding Myself Here, Cari Freno
Theses and Dissertations
Both the natural and civilized worlds establish a context within which I may understand my own existence. My search for “self” and the emotive qualities of life within these contexts provides the impetus for my work. I create juxtapositions: from found art assemblages to, more recently, intimate experiences in public park environments. Within these curated experiences I challenge myself to open up to unknown experiences derived from my relationship to the landscape and the life forms found within. My videos are a kind of self-surveillance fostering absurdly promiscuous behavior when I am alone, in front of a camera. These conjured …
Fundamentals In Nature, Andrea Quam
Fundamentals In Nature, Andrea Quam
Theses and Dissertations
This project explores innovative methodologies for design education. It is an investigation of teaching design fundamentals in an outdoor classroom.
Dairy Culture: Industry, Nature And Liminality In The Eighteenth-Century English Ornamental Dairy, Ashlee Whitaker
Dairy Culture: Industry, Nature And Liminality In The Eighteenth-Century English Ornamental Dairy, Ashlee Whitaker
Theses and Dissertations
The vogue for installing dairies, often termed "fancy" or "polite" dairies, within the gardens of wealthy English estates arose during the latter half of the eighteenth century. These polite dairies were functional spaces in which aristocratic women engaged, to varying degrees, in bucolic tasks of skimming milk, churning and molding butter, and preparing creams. As dairy work became a mode of genteel activity, dairies were constructed and renovated in the stylish architectural modes of the day and expanded to serve as spaces of leisure and recreation. Dairies were often lavishly outfitted to create a delicate and clean atmosphere, a fancy …
Integrating Nature Into Urban Educational Environments, Caroline Anne Davenport
Integrating Nature Into Urban Educational Environments, Caroline Anne Davenport
Theses and Dissertations
Urban educational environments struggle to offer green space and natural light to their students. Studies have shown that exposure to natural elements, such as natural light, ventilation and vegetation improves student performance and concentration. The Waldorf School understands a child's innate need for natural learning; making it a natural choice when studying design options that integrating nature into the educational environment. The emphasis on nature based learning in the curriculum leads Waldorf to be the perfect school to test the boundaries of what is possible in urban educational environments. The project integrates nature into an urban adaptive re-use school environment, …
Organic Space, Lisa Gardner
Organic Space, Lisa Gardner
Theses and Dissertations
My works evolve from a concrete vision but tend to lack recognizable imagery. Color and texture are central to my process. By isolating the element of color, I strive for purely formal qualities in my color field paintings. Working on textured suraces, such as burlap, allows me to capture textural elements, which further adds to the aesthetic components of my art. The lack of realistic imagery provides an opportunity for the viewer to personally interpret the visual elements. It is my objective that during the aesthetic experience, the viewer becomes captivated by the unique ways that colors play within tiny …
Invisible Green, Amanda Sauer
Invisible Green, Amanda Sauer
Theses and Dissertations
How is nature conceived today, a generation into the environmental movement? Many contemporary artists grapple with how to reconcile our inheritance of both a precarious natural world and the culture that created it. My work investigates the subtle intricacies of our relationship with nature. I use photography to develop a way of seeing that points to the often-unnoticed nature in front of us. In particular, my work recognizes and re-imagines nature's deep connections in the context of our ecologically changed world.
Toward A New Kinship Constellation, Nellie Helen Frances Appleby
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.
Animism In Whitman: "Multitudes" Of Interpretations?, Rachelle Helene Woodbury
Animism In Whitman: "Multitudes" Of Interpretations?, Rachelle Helene Woodbury
Theses and Dissertations
Walt Whitman used animistic techniques in his poetry and prose, specifically "Song of the Redwood Tree," "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," and Specimen Days. The term animism can be traced to the Latin root of the word, anime, which connotes a "soul" or "vitality." So, when one is talking about animistic techniques, one is speaking of the (metaphoric or realistic) ensoulment of natural objects. In the wake of a growing global crisis modern scholarship has begun reexamining the implications of this belief; often it introduces ambiguities into an otherwise comfortable relationship of unquestioned human domination. In Specimen Days, Whitman …
Healing Interior: Using Eastern Design Principles In Hotel Design, Yunju Lee Koh
Healing Interior: Using Eastern Design Principles In Hotel Design, Yunju Lee Koh
Theses and Dissertations
The main goal of this thesis is to explore how interior spaces in hotel designs can provide a less stressful environment and promote health and harmony by using Feng Shui Principles. It will first discuss the principles of Feng Shui and general hotel design, and then move on to demonstrate how the application of Feng Shui principles can be used to create a hotel environment that encourages health and harmony in its occupants. This project will demonstrate principles that not only can be applied to hotel space, but also can be practiced in any other interior space. This thesis, therefore, …
Trees, Kara M. Drinkwater
Trees, Kara M. Drinkwater
Theses and Dissertations
The intention behind my work is to draw the viewer's attention to the intimate, beautiful details found in nature. For example, I am awed and inspired by the unique qualities found in every tree whose varieties are seemingly infinite. The basic concept of my work is to portray the images of trees close to the viewer's eye to instill a sense of nature's grandness.
Textural Diversity, Paul Eskew
Textural Diversity, Paul Eskew
Theses and Dissertations
The sculptures I create reflect the elements of the natural world such as trees, the lumpy bush, clumps of turf. They have imperfect yet fascinating textures, picturesque in form, seemingly fractal in design, working together harmoniously to serve the aesthetic. My sculptures, like these natural shapes, are heavy or thicker toward the bottom and lighter toward the top, like a tree or stone. I strive to echo the mercurial, the animated natural surfaces, and the enticing vignettes one would experience on a woodland stroll.
Natural Selection, Jeffrey A. Vick
Natural Selection, Jeffrey A. Vick
Theses and Dissertations
My thesis work is about imagination. I use the collaborative efforts of the viewer's mind and my sculptures, or specimens, to make associations of real life animals. I feel this engages the viewer and in turn invites them to inspect the work on closer level. This is my ultimate goal in the work, to take hold of the viewer's curiosity and have them examine the work on a closer level.
A Shift In Perspective, Andrew Patrick Ilnicki
A Shift In Perspective, Andrew Patrick Ilnicki
Theses and Dissertations
Responsible design practice should include environmental advocacy and a focus on community subjects often lacking in design education. My creative project is the result of investigations into how designers integrate nature into their design process. By increasing their awareness for communal and environmental advocacy at the undergraduate level, students can develop responsible design practices at the beginning of their career. The result is the student's accumulation of integrity.
Feng Shui And Neighborhood Development, Kevin Allen Walters
Feng Shui And Neighborhood Development, Kevin Allen Walters
Theses and Dissertations
Planning is a rational process where we rely on training and our five senses, but not so much on our instincts. How can we reclaim this missing element and balance the rational with the intuitive? Feng Shui provides a method for enhancing the current planning process by evaluating the physical form through observation and management of the movement of ch'i energy. The Feng Shui Neighborhood Evaluation checklist, created in Excel, allows the planner to examine the form of a neighborhood to assess the quality of the ch'i. Individual ratings are input for each evaluation point within a category. The Bagua …
Love Of Nature, Marguerite Z. Ratliff
Love Of Nature, Marguerite Z. Ratliff
Theses and Dissertations
I stand in awe of nature's beauty. The natural forms and colors of my subjects inspire me to create paintings and three-dimensional clay pieces. As I marvel at God's handiwork, my soul is enriched by the pure sight of His canvas. The rich bright colors of the organic shapes compel me to visually interpret what I experience as an expression of who and what I am, and what I want others to see. My intent is to focus on the elements of the subject matter where the color, shape, and form dominate the space.
Foliage And Fabrication, Carrie Rosicky Garvey
Foliage And Fabrication, Carrie Rosicky Garvey
Theses and Dissertations
In my photographic work, I contrast natural and man-made objects abstracted by manipulation of scale. Details of the objects are blown up to proportions larger than life. By distorting the scale, I aim to allow the audience to view the image out of context, enabling the viewer to see it for its aesthetic value rather than the object's functional purpose.
Keeping Gardens: Poetry And Essay, Deja Anne Earley
Keeping Gardens: Poetry And Essay, Deja Anne Earley
Theses and Dissertations
This creative thesis includes two creative non-fiction essays and twenty-two poems, introduced by a critical essay that examines my work. The poems and essays share an origin in personal experience as well as an interest in language. Specifically, the poems and essays explore issues of family, relationships, spirituality, and observations of the natural world. The introductory essay discusses my interest in re-fashioning individual vision through the act of writing, relating to Helene Cixous's idea of creating a "portrait of God" through the act of art. The essay also examines the connections between the genres of creative non-fiction and poetry, in …
Country Views, Rebecca Massie
Country Views, Rebecca Massie
Theses and Dissertations
Over the years I have created many different images and explored a variety of media along my artistic journey. Similar images continue to occur in my work - images from my life as a child and as an adult in rural settings. I lived on a poultry farm and was involved in working with my parents there. When I married, my husband was a cattle farmer so I continued to live on a farm and use rural images in my work. Living in the country makes me constantly aware of the relationship between God, nature and man. I believe that …
Reflections, Laura Love Higbee
Reflections, Laura Love Higbee
Theses and Dissertations
Much of my artistic inspiration comes from my walks in nature. I explore the many different textures of stones, wood chips, tree bark, water ripples, lily pads, birds' feathers, and webbed feet. I find that the reflections on the surface of a pond, and the shadows and highlights on my subjects, are most beautifully captured as they are veiled by the dusk sunset. Sometimes I prefer to capture an image more inclusive of the environment. Other times I am more intrigued by the up close view of a subject, sometimes abstracting it. Through photography I can capture the quiet moments …