Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Wonderland, Mai Tran

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

“WONDERLAND” is a series of large-scale print and installation work created from 2021 to 2023. This body of work showcases dream-like landscapes, Vietnamese legends and customs blended with American culture to create unique visual narratives. Elements such as mythical animals, the Ly dynasty dragon and ceramics, and the Vietnamese Nom script speak to an almost forgotten culture. In contrast, the carno-lotus (cheeseburger) plant, Walleye, Bobcat, and winter scenery reference life in the Midwest. By combining elements from the two cultures, the artist builds parallel worlds where all living things can sustain and value each other’s differences — a place without …

Utility Lines, Carolyn Hartwell

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The paintings included in this Thesis Exhibition explore the theme of fragility that retains quiet strength. Combining delicacy with tenacity is how I arrived at the name of the exhibition, Utility Lines. A utility line transfers energy and is vulnerable to both weather and accident; the fragile materiality is the weakness inherent to functionality. In my work, I am deciding how much responsibility for the stability of a composition can be carried by the most tenuous elements. I test how much of the emotional and compositional load of a painting can be born by muted colors, awkward shapes and unsteady …

Running From The Touch On My Back: Affect And Technology In A Studio Practice, Anthony Noel Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

I rediscovered a family photo box two years ago. An image of my grandfather sat on the top of the piles in the Tupperware box. The photo created an immediate intensity and infected the entire family photobox. My grandfather committed suicide twenty years before I was born. From the point of this discovery I have needed to explore why vernacular photographs can create haunting resonances. There seem to be limits to the information we can glean from photographs like this one. Photographs like this one activate our desires to fill in unknown details. They also encourage personal hauntings and lingering …

Losing True, Maizy L. Hillman

Senior Projects Spring 2020

At the beginning of this project, I found myself researching something I wasn't even sure existed. I was searching for a word or a phenomenon that explained an indefinable feeling that I have come across in my life. This feeling, which is so pronounced and yet invisible, causes me to question how it works, how it makes us feel things, what it is made of, when it is present and when it is not. I cannot access it intentionally, I only notice it when it is already happening.

My research oscillated between the scientific and the spiritual. I came across …

Connecting Thread, Christen Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Up until about the 1960’s, sculpture was dominated by work made with metal, wood, or stone. These materials would be described as “hard” or “masculine,” while materials such as fabric or yarn are described as “soft” or “feminine.” Fabric is known for its softness and malleability and is commonly used to cover the human body for objects such as clothing or bedding. The materials that I have selected are generally considered soft, yet protective, but are also thought of as insubstantial and fragile. As a child, I would see quilts and hear stories about how my maternal grandmother and great-grandmother …

I Used To Be A House, Mary Carroll Henjes

Senior Projects Spring 2017

MEMORY PAST EXPERIENCE EMBODIED EMBODY BODY CONTAIN CONTAINER HOUSE HOME HEAR SEE BE TO BE BEING (NOT) BE WANT TO BE DESIRE FAILURE FUTURE

The danger of nostalgia in opposition with the intrinsic importance of memory. The shift of memory in relation to time, space, place, identification, and experience. How one moves through the world, the act of continuously orienting and (re)orienting. Building connections through shape, form, light, color, image, and recollection. Building a house. Being a house. The queering of memory coupled with the craving for a feeling of home. Building oneself and one’s community from the ground up …

Closed For Business, Tyler Schrandt

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Closed for Business is an installation which creates an immersive environment that awards the curious. The inspiration for the exhibition came from local industry and human tendency. In likeliness of a defunct factory, the installation transforms the gallery into a dimly lit mysterious space. Using mostly objects found on local farms and in everyday households, a narrative takes shape. The question "what happened here?" looms as you investigate the space looking for clues. With a keen eye for observation, you navigate the room and stumble upon the office of a misguided -- and missing -- entrepreneur. As you internalizing the …

Fabrication, Evelyn T. Reed

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Dweller, William Christensen

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

William Christensen DWELLER What does it mean to become someone else? What does that mean for the identity of the person before they became this character? These questions have become a focal point for my work. I have been employing the self-portrait as a means of transforming myself into a different character. For this body of work I have written a short story, which is the basis for my artwork. This story is about the main character's grasp on reality slipping away from him and his shift from sanity to insanity. The different papers and styles come together as one …

You And I, Nao Yamamoto

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Artist statement Nao Yamamoto The environment I grew up in allowed me to cultivate an appreciation for both contemporary art and traditional craft, and I still respect the Japanese culture. However, experiencing contemporary art based on a different society and environment changed my perspective and I felt like it took me beyond the narrow culture of Japan. Since I recognized my art as a way to represent myself, or even to have conversations with tnyself, I became devoted to a contemporary art practice. It has been so exciting to see my thoughts made visual and how I've been changed by …

Experiments And Undulations, Jackleen Kramer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

I’m fascinated by the strengths and weaknesses of ceramic and metals. Traditionally ceramic objects have had a sense of sturdiness, as do industrial metals. My interest stems from utilizing both materials’ plasticity to my advantage. My work juxtaposes these concepts by embracing the fragility of both materials in a playful manner. This allows me to transform a static linear piece of metal or wire mesh into an undulating organic shape with curves and cast shadows that change from every angle. To accomplish this, I use small gauge wire mesh and thinly applied high fire paper clay, nylon clay, or Egyptian …