Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Making Mochi!, Shannon 'Owo' Crystal Webb

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Making mochi (rice cakes) is a metaphor for making a way of life for myself through spiritual and cultural practice. I navigate the complexities of cultural mixing and identity as someone who is half Korean and half white. Rather than one or the other, I have always felt mixed, so my path to understanding my place in the world is also mixed. On one level, I am honoring my heritage by referencing Korean customs, folktales, and mythology. On another, I address how my needs are based on my current state, which includes my location, pop culture, and society at large. …

Pushzoompantilt, A Letter To Grandmother, Karl Y. Schwiesow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

pushzoompantilt is an ongoing body of work that considers the relationship of handmade art objects with found and altered objects of utility and leisure. Addressed herein is an explanation of this relationship between clay form and altered objects seen through the lens of open and closed systems and fixedness.

Snip, Snap, Snout: This Tale Is Told Out, Crista A. Ames

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mythology has shaped human thought and experience since before recorded history. Passed from one generation to the next, myths elevate and aggrandize realities that are difficult, complex or horrifying. This is what makes us human, an inspiring capacity toward metaphor and the ability to make beauty, lyricism and splendor—order from the chaos. Within mythology, the cause and effect of both misery and joy may be explored in their wholeness. In this act of imaginative translation, we may come to understand how misery and joy are naturally coexisting.

In my thesis exhibition this tale is told out, I use the layering …