Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes, Andrew Demczuk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes examines the ways we encounter environments as readers/viewers of operas, literature, film, and sound recordings, and how each medium requires different detail-gathering techniques. Respective to the previously mentioned mediums, Sun & Sea (2017), Mount Analogue (1952), El Mar La Mar (2017), and Energy Field (2010) are analyzed by engaging with environmental media studies and invention. Reflecting the nature of each landscape—summits of mountains, aporias of deserts, and mysteries of waterscapes—an elemental approach is taken in investigating how these spaces may be noticed, internalized, recorded, and traversed by both the artist and viewer. …

Home, Work, Land, Gregory Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses his Master of Fine Arts exhibition, entitled Family, Work, Land. The exhibit was mounted in Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City, TN, from February 22nd to March 11th, 2022. A public reception was held on the evening of March 4th . The exhibition consisted principally of four multimedia installations. Smith’s body of work is an interpretation of how stories that he often heard growing up are related to the Western North Carolina community in which his grandparents were living in the first quarter of the twentieth century. These works explore the interactions between people, how they support …

Home/Sick, Elizabeth P. Fontenot

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a supporting document that discusses the conceptual and technical aspects of the artworks in the accompanying exhibition, HOME/SICK. The work in the exhibition consists of selections from different series of work that are inspired by related subject matter. The content driving the work responds to anecdotal experiences of people living in communities near oil refineries and chemical processing plants and how events at these facilities affect their way of life. Many times, these are communities of color which strive to voice concerns and protect homes from harmful toxins. In one series, original and appropriated imagery serves as …

It's All Fun And—: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Space In The Pandemic., Erica Von Proctor Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exhibition and document explore spatial rhetoric during the pandemic, utilizing materiality and relational aesthetics to reflect on the different ways in which the public and private are made distinct from one another. In doing so, Lewis addresses new cultural navigations of shared spaces, both digital and corporeal, public and private. In addition, the artist also examines the faulty social and institutional systems that the pandemic brought to light, such as socioeconomic dynamics and voter suppression, while utilizing Kenneth Burke’s concept of the terministic screen. Games are a central theme throughout the exhibition, as they are often coded as “home” …

Transformation., Jingshuo Yang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My works mainly show my perception of life and my change of thought. The world is full of changes, and the pandemic has disrupted our lives. Many people, including me, are confused about the world. Philosophy and my observation and thinking about the world helped me to have a clearer understanding of the world. My paintings Licia, Butterfly Woman, and Live with Covid reflect my understanding of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's theory of empathy. Within my art, I also use another German Philosopher Theodor W. Adorno's theory of the culture industry to deepen my understanding of some social phenomena. My …

Betwixt & Between., Xuanyi Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I will discuss the process of learning, borrowing, and exploring the fusion between styles that emerged from the exchange of Eastern and Western civilizations. I will also use the process of transformation and merging of motifs to evoke my thoughts on the identity of immigrants. In addition, the essay will also discuss the similarities between traditional Chinese and Western designs metaphorically. This thesis will also explain why I use IUDs for pattern creation and provide views on the body ownership of women in the East and West. I will also consider the evolution and reflection of the …

Meat The Future., Xin Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the subtle relationship between human life, the environment, and other animals that we live among every day. Under the mainstream social background of capitalism and a commodity economy, animals are the victims of constant consumption and exploitation. However, meat is a basic substance for human nourishment, especially in certain cultures. As a result, meat becomes an important part of the commodity economy in capitalist societies, wherein the supply must be filled to accommodate society’s demand. This research formed an exhibition using glass and ceramic artwork using a playfully satirical tone to offer a crucial alternative: how …

Where Do I Belong In The United States Public School System?, Christiana R. Becker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I seek to inquire about the world as it relates to my identity as a first generation descent of the Penobscot tribe living in the United States by utilizing four methodologies in my research: life histories/autobiographies, narrative inquiry, a/r/tography and practice-based and practice-led. Through coupling my artistic practice with those four methodologies I am able to creatively show the information I have unearthed in hopes that others will benefit from a fresh and augmented understanding of what it historically and culturally means to be a part of a community that makes up a very small percentage of the United States …

Di•As•Po•Ra: Displaced, Not Erased., Betty Álvarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is based on my artistic endeavors and research founded in my culture, family, the history of the United States government’s intervention in El Salvador, and the current political climate Latin Americans face today in the United States. I work within multiple mediums to resurrect pieces of my culture that are being forgotten or left behind due to assimilation. I accomplish this through revisiting and reinterpreting traditions. I aim to bring awareness of the Latin experience in a racially divided United States through artistic expression and my own personal experiences. My works are made to feel whimsical and playful, …

Instinct, Eric Sanders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a convergence point of my interests that I explore in this body of work. As a service member and wildlife enthusiast, I pursue not only an outlet for my own creative expression and illustrative ambitions, but a platform to support creative advocacy for military service members and their families. With the principles of relational aesthetics and art as social practice supporting illustrative and design-centric work, I have found that convergence. This dream continues to manifest in Noble Instinct Artworks, a creative-based company I founded that incorporates the fine art methodology, business practices, and artistic collaboration with outreach potential …

Culture For Sale, Jessica L. Cartwright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a post-colonial world, one would expect much of the servitude of the past to have ended, but this is not the case. In places such as the Bahamas new forms of or neo- colonialism has come to exist specifically under the guise of tourism. Writing amidst the end of colonialism in the twentieth century, Franz Fanon argues that sblack person exists in a liminal state. They must assimilate to the white society in order to be accepted, but not so much so thatbecause that it threatens whiteness. It is through Fanon’s writing on race that I have developed a …

Neosublime, Reframing The Philosophical, Kathy Varadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why have the sunsets and sunrises become so amazingly colorful and awe inspiring recently? Eighteenth century philosophers said such events were examples of the sublime. They defined the sublime as that which is the most absolutely great combined with an underlying element of fear usually caused by the actions of God. This infers that the sublime is something that you can’t fully understand or wrap your head around and leaves you speechless and spell bound. Contemporary art critics say that the sublime is no longer applicable to art because it has been overused. I disagree, and in my art, I …

Crafting Up A Narrative: An Ethnographic Study Of Fair Trade Marketing Practices And The Representation Of Female Handicraft Producers, Jessica Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unlike the exploitative supply chains that exist under neoliberal globalization, where the social conditions of their supply chain are largely hidden; fair trade attempts to reveal the conditions of their supply chains through transparent marketing practices. Transparency is often presented in the form of storytelling wherein fair trade organizations (FTOs) reveal intimate details of the artisans they partner with to educate consumers on the interrelations of their product supply chains. I wanted to explore the implications of sharing artisan stories to further sales of the handicrafts they produced. How does sharing intimate stories of artisans formulate the perceptions Western consumers …

Perplexions: Perceptions, Plexi And Prose, Amy B. Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An understanding of our world is unique to each individual and their experiences. While experiences are often shared, we all process them according to our own schema. Through exploration into the multiple facets of plexiglass, my work examines trauma, loss and its lasting effect on a person's memory of the past, present and perception of the future. These experiences can cause an abrupt shift in personal schema and reshape one’s perception of the world. Through the combination of visual and linguistic stimuli, my trauma-informed work can be a catalyst for my viewers to discuss what they are experiencing and why. …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of Covid-19 Infection Control On Visual Art Installations In Hospitals With Pediatric Patients, Shannon Kimich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 infection control on visual artwork in pediatric hospitals and hospitals caring for pediatric patients. The study involved five hospitals in three southern America states and addressed visual artwork and art installations. The researcher administered an internet-based survey to participants in job functions related to hospital administration, environmental services, and project management across the facilities and received participation from 18 respondents. Additionally, telephone interviews were conducted with three participants with the job titles project manager/analyst, child-life specialist, and environmental services director. Survey questions were designed to examine visual art programs in selected children’s hospitals …

Witness And Testimony: The Role Of Race And Community In Forming Black Aesthetics., Cathy Smith Shannon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a visual examination of the relationship of community to output of black artists, inspired by the Social Justice movement of 2020. It was important to note the impact on artistic output of community and environment that influenced each artist. This thesis looks at the work of two artists that grew up in the 1930s and launched their This thesis looks at the work of two artists that grew up in the 1930s and launched their Rights era of the 1960s began their artistic careers during the 1980s; and two artist that were born during the 1960s Civil …

An Unbearable Illumination Of Truth, Shanna Glawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An Unbearable Illumination of Truth is a series of sculptures created to explore the connection between trauma and healing. The sculptural exhibition addresses economic, occupational, childhood, sexual, and gender-based trauma. These sculptures incorporate familiar motifs and visual metaphors to express narratives of varying types of traumas. A broad range of sculptural materials (such as wood, fabric, and found objects) and methods are used to create these symbolic, objective forms. The juxtaposition of shelters with other forms and materials visually enacts the themes of vulnerability and intrigue that characterizes traumatic incidents. Shelters are referenced throughout this entire body of work as …

Coherence, Travis Walthall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

COHERENCE is a series of oil paintings and pen drawings that explores open narratives, or different ways to read artwork. The paintings and drawings showcase harmony, or tension, between ambiguous and representational forms. The visual experience requires the viewer to create their own narrative and decipher forms to do so. COHERENCE is a psychological and aesthetic exhibition fueled from human experience— one of fragility, uncertainty, imperfection, beauty, faith and memories.

Shifting Sands., Rachid Tagoulla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shifting Sands is a re-exploration of the presentation of North Africans in colonial postcards, an examination of identity, and a critique of the modern Western museum. Since the inception of photography, colonizers used this medium- especially in the form of postcards- to categorize and exoticize Eastern peoples in order to more easily subjugate them. Shifting Sands is a series of reconstructed colonial postcards which challenges colonial-era stereotypes of North African peoples. The colonial gaze, represented by the camera lens, is subverted through a lensless image-making process in which sand is used to remove the subject from the colonial gaze and …

-Rhiza., Katherine E. Watts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

-rhiza is a collection of work that focuses on an immersive experience of local ecology and the dichotomous relationship of humanity and nature, presented through the artist's eyes, ecophilosophy, mycology, ecofeminism, and metaphor. An installation of experiential work, -rhiza consists of videography, printmaking, photography, musical elements, both found object and natural item sculptures, and poetry. This compendium of work addresses humanity's apathy towards the ecological imbalance and how this affects our fundamental interconnectedness with all life. Based on explorations of local waterways and the recognition of human consumerism's pressing issues, -rhiza attempts to present the urgent matter of rising …

Ex-Tensions: Material Entanglement And Intensities, Zohreh Galdizadeh Garmeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of the intrinsic capacity of matter and material formations and utilization of art as a mode of inquiry. Ex-tensions: Material Entanglement and Intensities investigates the animism and vibrancy of objects and the hidden interplay between materials and intensities that flow through and around within the spaces that confine us. In this body of work, all forms of material configurations are understood as animated and agential and as different representations of the same substance that are only formally diverse.

Myelination: A Plastic Religion, Cody A. Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Plastic products are convenient, abundant and our use of them has become routine. This acceptance of

plastics’ presence has become a dogma that most humans adhere to. The continual consumption of

these single-use plastics in our daily lives has unknowingly shaped our environmental consciousness,

behaviors, and justification for them. This belief in plastics function has been strategically developed by

companies that rely on our behaviors to distribute their products. Humans have become the faithful

consumers of these goods and this belief. The brain and its ability to remain plastic and develop

decision-making skills are known as Myelination. New experiences enhance …

Conversations With The Oregon Trail And The Silent Generation, Jose A. Camacho Quiroz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to explain the reason behind my art practise and process as it stands in August 2020, its context and relation to my life and experience as an outsider in the American culture. This process culminates in the documentation of experiences through the use and preparation of displays of personal artifacts as physical evidence and mechanisms of my transformation to my american persona through a continuing acculturation process and drift from the american generational archetype.

It is important to outline my current work state diverges from my past work since it no longer serves a …

Surface Levels, Keisha Brathwaite

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surface Levels are depictions of unobserved and imperceptible realities of many phytoplankton exteriors. The exhibition explores various structures, textures, and repetitious forms from microscopic surfaces of objects that cannot be seen with unaided eyes. Electron microscopy is used to perceive and analyze these otherwise unseeable surfaces in depth. Magnifications provide a reference in creating three- and two-dimensional works that are minimalistic and abstract at a visible level. This abstract 3D/2D image collection is translated into material expressions using acrylic sheets, acrylic ink, and wood as the main media for construction of individual works. Collectively, they serve to make the invisible …

Analysis Of Twenty-First Century Zines., Anna Blake

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an analysis of twenty-first century zines as markedly different from their predecessors. The twenty-first century zine is often framed as a continuation of the punk zines from the late twentieth century, this thesis disagrees and argues for the classification of the twenty-first century zine as a unique form of culture that has evolved from the punk zines of the 1980s and 90s. The thesis is divided into five chapters in which the twenty-first century zine is analyzed using specific examples. Chapter one begins with an introduction of the zine, defining the object based on its social consequences …

Silly Trip Wires, Jonathan Byrd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses the work in Silly Trip Wires, 2020 his Master of Fine Arts exhibition. The exhibition includes an installation, Silly Trips Wires, and documentation of a smaller site-specific version of the work.

The Artist discusses the process of transition from military to civilian, and the potential effects that mental trauma from combat deployments can have on this process. This is tied to an analysis of how communicating the experience of veterans to civilians, through artwork, functions to bring about understanding.

Dunidedcudigunadie, Lawrence Reid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses his Master of Fine Arts exhibit, titled DUNIDEDCUDIGUNADIE. The exhibit is to be held at the Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City, TN, from April 2nd to April 10th, 2020. A live reception will be held the evening of April 3rd, featuring a performance with the work, titled Look at You!

The following thesis explores the artist’s formative years – investigating how childhood experiences combine with artistic and theoretical influences to inform his art-making process.

Holler, Ashley Gregg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition Holler, held at Tipton Gallery March 2^ndto March 13^th, 2020. The exhibition features an installation of works on fiber, paper, and found objects tied to her upbringing in Southern Appalachia. A variety of collected materials including bedsheets, chalkboards, and barbwire are taken out of their traditional contexts and brought into a new vantage point through the artist’s alterations.

Gregg re-contextualizes materials, language, and signifiers as a process of decoding formative experiences in domestic and academic spaces. Themes examined in the work include rote learning, tradition, …

In Hindsight: Non-Visible Patch Points, Erik Ordaz Lozano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Exhibition consisting of seven ceramic vessels. I constructed these objects on the potter’s wheel by throwing and joining sections together based on a set of loose measurements and visual guidelines I have developed using slips and underglazes for mark making and soda firing for final surface treatment. This work is the result of my reflections on the concepts of form, shape, balance, time, and connection.

Invocation., Shae Taylor Goodlett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research of this thesis is concerned with the investigation of various approaches to religious theory; specifically, the observable analysis of performed ritualistic procedures and their theoretical anticipated effects. Through the examination of the illusory characteristics of the interaction of color and light I am able to draw analogous correlations between art making and ritualistic action. By enacting optical illusion as metaphor for ritual presence, I compare rational and empirical methods of observation. This analysis examines the discrepancy of physical fact and physic effect in that illusion employs physically observable means to render an intangible (non-material) physic effect. Such observances …