Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Tradiciones, Selena Medellin

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the organic ceramic forms I create, I provide a look into memories of growing up with my late grandfather, a first generation Mexican-American. Our house was adorned with Mexican paintings, an altar for those that had passed, and traditional textiles such as sarapes, rugs, and blankets. I learned stories of our ancestors, the myths and legends of our native land, and that you must celebrate both life and death. I use the combination of ceramics and mixed media to convey both the vibrancy and solemnity of Mexican tradition. In my work, I reference Aztec Gods and Goddesses, Mexican textiles, …

Pain & Glory, Wardah Sabrie

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Behind the glass, the work exists in many styles. Through all of them, Sabrie finds a release of her emotional extremes, leading her to a place of tranquility. In this print and installation collection, Sabrie intends to show her perspective on Somali culture as well as her emotional and mental health issues through delightful patterns and colors. She creates works about her relationships with the people that she cares so much about in her life. They are the leading muses for her ideas that then are compose into prints. In addition to that, her culture plays a huge role in …

Reclaim, Harris Benjamin Deno

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

I make ceramic and mixed media objects that embody interaction with material. Translated from the simple utterance of the hand the material articulates the labor. As in any relationship there are miscommunications and disagreements; Desperation, struggle, and honest interaction are apparent on the surface of the labored forms. Objects are created in an immediate fashion, the intimacy of the moment folded into the material. Each interaction an embodiment of the human experience. I think of these works as entries in a journal; The gravity of a moment is captured, relieving the mind by bearing that weight.

Whenever approaching a work, …

Mimbres Painted Pottery: Art, Artifact, Or Ancestor? Conversations Concerning Repatriation, Treatment, And Considerations For Contested Collections In Museums, Rachel Vang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This research explores current perspectives on the placement and treatment of Native American funerary materials in museum collections, as well as how museum professionals navigate the associated legal, ethical, and cultural considerations of these collections. Of primary concern for the present study is the Mimbres painted pottery vessels from the American Southwest and their associated burial context. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with various professionals working within and with museums that either have Mimbres collections or those that have relevant experience with Native American materials in museum collections. Patterns of meaning within discussions concerning Mimbres pottery were captured and …

Misfits, Hanna Newman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My figurative ceramic sculptures are comprised of deconstructed, fragmented and simplified renderings of the human form. Within these sculptures I integrate materials such as human hair, fabric, wood and plaster cast body parts to mimic limbs and body mass, creating diversity in the tactile surface quality. The pastel tones, bright colors and additions of hair further obscures the realistic appearance of these beings. Clay's malleability fuels my intuitive creative process and allows me to replicate the human form in ranges from anatomical accuracy to biomorphic abstraction.

I am inspired by the relationship between interiority and exteriority, between the mind and …

Augmentation Of Music, Kyle Lenzen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My main inspiration for my work is music. I convey the idea of music in a physical and conceptual way. The way I represent music in my work is through Collage, Silhouettes, and Abstract Shapes. The main elements that I use can be found in album art, musicians and musical notation. Music has been a huge influence on my life. I want to share that influence and bring people together through my work. Music creates connections with anybody and can bridge different cultures together.

One way to document music is using the staff. The basic staff uses five lines and …

North Of The Heart East Of Victory, Joel Hansen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Just as music can be described as colorful and text can provide texture, art has a voice. That voice can scream, whisper or babble incoherently. It can also sing. Making art sing is the overarching goal of all my work. There are no formulas or templates, of which I am aware, on how to accomplish this but if I think of individual pieces as songs, a series as an album and exhibits as concerts art can become sonorous. Shadows and highlights act as rhythm. Color and composition behave as melodies and arrangements. If I've done my job correctly the art …

Elements, Stephen Anthony Geffre

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis consisted of a gallery exhibition titled “Elements” featuring sculpture created by Stephen Geffre for his Master of Arts in Sculpture from University of Minnesota-Mankato, located in Mankato Minnesota. The exhibition ran from October 16, 2017 to October 31, 2017. The artwork explored sacredness---sacredness rooted in the natural, sacredness rooted within the minds of human kind, sacredness in the form of the classical elements Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

All the work was created in part with material that was going to be thrown away or sold at a fraction of its cost because of its imperfection.

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 …

Jasmine Greenwaldt: Continuum, Jasmine Elise Greenwaldt

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

I create in order to explore. I welcome the unexpected, not only in my art but in my life as well. The process of creation and exploration have just as much importance as the finished product itself. I seek to express emotion in my work, whether that be through color, brush strokes or simply the movement of paint. My thesis reflects all of the exploration I have done not only throughout graduate school but during my life. It has become a written book of my journey, demonstrated through the use of paint.

Artscience, Dustin Swiers

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My thesis show opened on Friday, March 11, 2016 at the 410 project's art gallery, located in downtown Mankato.

The artwork consisted of sculptures displayed on pedestals, hanging on the walls, sitting on specifically constructed arrangements, and hanging from the ceiling. The materials I used to create these sculptures have a dramatically contrasting appearance, but have one universal similarity. At some point most of the materials used were liquid or fluid. I used metals, ceramics, hand blown glass, plastics, and wax. I like to work with these materials in that fluid state because of the added flexibility and forgiveness they …

Concerning The Interaction Of Forms, Luke Splinter

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

"Concerning the Interaction of Forms" is exactly what is in my mind when creating and thinking about work. I am concerned with all of the interactions that can be made when thinking about and looking at forms. How do the forms interact with one another? How do they interact with the space they are placed in? How do they interact with the viewer? These are the questions that concern me the most when creating work

When making work I do so with the help of basic geometric shapes, mathematic ratios, and the feeling I get from the form as it …

All Things In All Ways, Amanda Nicole Crary

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis highlights our obliviousness to nonhuman nature and how this ignorance severs a great connection to the earth and our senses. My work explores this important connectedness. The natural world is filled with fleeting revelations that shatter habitual ways of seeing and experiencing; my paintings act as record of such moments. The exhibition was held at the Conkling Gallery in Nelson Hall from February 24th to March 5th, 2014. It consisted of twenty-two works including paintings, drawings, and prints. All works were produced during my time within the M.A. program, 2012-2014. Postcards and a brochure advertised the exhibition. The …

Can't Get A Date, Date A Dog, Dana Marie Sikkila

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My work is about redefining a space, taking away the idea of the white cube that is known as the gallery. I want to take my viewer to another space without having them leave the room. My work overtakes the gallery and gives it a new meaning. The use of wallpaper and house hold appliances transforms the viewer to an era that no longer exists. The use of repetition and female imagery overwhelms the viewer. Over thousands of individually silkscreened and hand cut prints are combined with household appliances to create a three-dimensional sculpture. It takes a two dimensional thing …

Parietal Dwellings, Krista Heinitz

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My work is inspired by the mysterious qualities of our earth, and the beings that inhabit it. I reference nature, biology, architecture, and popular culture to make works which encourage contemplation. I am creating my own personal history through the making, as well as inviting the communal connection. This body of work aims to create a space filled with juxtapositions, optical illusions, and familiar materials. Inspired by lucid dreaming, the work puts a twist on assumed normalcy in our environment.

Precious Commodities, Colin John Klimesh

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My process mimics the production of goods and commodities in the industrial and commercial sector. It begins with the conception of a design, which I translate to the fabrication of a matrix, a means for replication and reproduction. I find the aesthetics of systematic production visually appealing. Store shelves speak of repetition and duplication, a society of productivity, efficiency and economy, industrialization and commercialism. Though I despise the underlying values that consumerism promotes, I love the clean, geometric, organized and modular aesthetic that it conveys. I often work between ceramics and print media, letting one process inform the other. Ceramic …

This Is Not Where You Are, Wesley James Hill

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

A mobile art gallery show that is comprised of stop motion videos and prints relating to out unnoticed conveniences and our ability to take our subconsciously forgotten surroundings for granted.

Teaching Children How To Like Balanced Meals, Harumi Norasakkunkit

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Growing up in Japan, balanced meals were always provided at home, at schools and even at restaurants. Unfortunately, children are not going to choose balanced meals from the start, so this habit has to be instilled by parents and by the educational system until it eventually becomes a personal preference for children. If children are simply given the choice to eat whatever they want from the beginning, it is unlikely that this preference will ever be developed. The emphasis of nurturing the habit of eating balanced meals, rather than just eating preferred foods, is what is particular about Japanese parenting. …

Vestige, Gina Hunt

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The work in Vestige alludes to aging and the physical deterioration of the human body through time. My interests in early radiography and X-ray technology, paired with a recent exploration of spirit photography, have become the conceptual basis for this body of work. The relationship between medical imaging and spirit photography deals with technological efforts to document the elusive and less tangible. In this work, the artistic process has become a metaphor for existence and ephemera. Utilizing monotype printmaking with spray paint, I create marks that are traces. This quality becomes a metaphor for the transient, similar to watching a …

Christian Iconography: A Search For Form In The Paintings Of Kaul And Others, Marlin R. Kaul

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the subsequent chapters the writer will relate (1) the historical significance of Christian art and show relationships of philosophies as to content and form in religious paintings; (2) the inclusion of an analysis of his paintings in relation to Christian Iconography and a discussion of the extent to which historical content and symbolism have influenced his work; and (3) observations of his work compared with contemporary painting.