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, …

Black Lives Matter: Keep Your Eyes On The Prize (2021), Gregory T. Wilkins

The International Journal of Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education

The image is of a woman of African descent who is wearing a colorful headdress which cascades down one side of her head to her tattered sweater. One eye is blind. The other eye has a target over it with her eye looking to the side. The target represents the world looking at her, targeting/labeling her because of the color of her skin, and it also represents her looking out into the world focusing intently on the future. Her eye is looking to the side engaging the periphery; she is ready and fully aware of her surroundings. Pending on the …

Black Lives Matter: Hands Up, Don't Shoot (2021), Gregory T. Wilkins

The International Journal of Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education

The image is of a multi-colored background with crochet thread radiating across the canvas. White Fleece letters are quilted onto the canvas spelling out the words ‘Hands Up, Don't Shoot’

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Expanding Art's Audience, Tony Connors

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This paper investigates the need for contemporary art museums to expand their audience to fit their role as educational institutions. It is based on research that looks at ways museums have typically been operated in the past and then focuses on newer modes of operation, using the Brooklyn Museum as an example of a museum that educates and reaches a greater audience. Lastly, the paper looks at how particular artists have broken the mold of presenting art in order to interact with and relate to audiences in new ways. This research explains ways that art can be made accessible to …

Performance Sculpture--An Exploratory Collaboration Between Sculpture And Dance, Cesia G. Kearns

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Kinetic sculpture suggests new visual possibilities when combined with dance. Wishing to explore such avenues of interaction for sculpture, this artist sought to develop pieces that could be incorporated into choreography. An artist and a choreographer wove their concepts and styles together to create a performance art piece that rose from the reciprocal influences of interactive sculpture and dance. The creative process included development of concepts, visual imagery, and movement as the artist and choreographer shared ideas. The choreography of the original dance influenced the form, structure, and conceptual elements of the sculpture, which was developed in reaction to the …

Reflections On Canvas: Caravaggio And The Development Of Optical Stype, Eleanor Rae Harper

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

At the height of his career, Baroque painter Michaelangelo de Mersi Caravaggio was revered for his ability to foster a heightened sense of realism never before seen upon the canvas. However as recent scholarship and a renewed interest in the history of artistic methodology reveal, the artist may have utilized optical devices such as a single lens to project reflections of his subjects upon the canvas. Due to the limitations of such devices, spatial discontinuity and unnatural proportion are just two of the discrepancies which have affected the realism and overall unity of his artwork. Caravaggio worked with naturalism in …

Impact Of Combining Traditional Printmaking With Contemporary Digital Print, Harumi Okoshi

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

For this project, I would like to combine the precision of computer-generated graphics with the warm-feel of traditional printmaking as a way to integrate traditional art practices with new technology. Graphic design is regarded as commercial art, such as designing packages or posters, and is separate from fine art. As a graphic designer, my goal is to develop meaningful visual solutions. Through the presentation of my project, I will demonstrate a way to introduce traditional printmaking into contemporary graphic art. There are a lot of preparations involved for traditional printmaking. You have to make several proofs before you actually print …

Political Art Of The Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts In The Nineteen Sixties Countermovement, Melissa Seifert

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The Black Power Movement found its beginning in the late fifties with sit-ins and freedom rides, which conveyed a new racial consciousness within the black community in the United States. However, these initial forms of protest were non-violent. The civil rights movement did not see a great deal of violence until nineteen sixty five when Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party. Through the pages of the Party's newspaper the Black Panther, resident artist Emory Douglas used his drawings to persuade action and vengeance. His work is similar in style to the work of Pop artist …

Crossing The Divide Between Art And Craft, Kristin Harsma

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Throughout history, various qualities of art have gone in and out of fashion, works declared high art being considered most important. However, there has always been a hierarchy of not only subjects of art but also of media used to create art. Some media, such as fibers, stained glass, mosaics, and even ceramics, are considered on the lower end of this scale, due to their associations with certain processes and function. I argue that it is illegitimate to maintain a hierarchy based on processes and function, for all works of art require some knowledge and skill of one's craft, whether …

The Art Of Being: A Study Of The Relationship Between Daoism And Art, Jessica Ortis

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Ever since the beginning of time, artists have been inspired by the religion they choose to follow. Sometimes religion was the subject, but more often than not, one had to really dig deeper into a work of art to understand the religious meaning. In my paper, I focused on contemporary Chinese artist Song Dong, who uses his artistic abilities to reflect the ideals of Daoism. Focusing on a couple of more well known works by Song Dong, one can see that he shows how one is able to move down the path to lead a more full life through the …

A Contemporary Spin On Tradition: Xu Bing's Cultural Exploration, Karen Obermeyer-Kolb

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This paper analyzed the artwork of Xu Bing and his exploration of cultural values, specifically of language in China. Chinese is one of the oldest written languages of the world, with forms established by 1000CE. One of the purposes of classical Chinese calligraphy was self expression. The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s brought a shift to this tradition by using large characters as propaganda. Xu Bing uses prominent symbols of culture and language, stemming from the classical teaching of his parents and his work experience during the Cultural Revolution, to convey views of society, as well as to …

Mona Hatoum And The Biographical Influence On Cross-Cultural Exchange, Nicole Shelton

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Artist Mona Hatoum, a Palestinian born in Beirut and educated in London, has experienced the boundaries and displacement of exile. These have become influential in her work and are implied within some of her statements. Compared are the external experiences of a double-exile directly to her subjectivity, culminating in a discussion of works of art such as Light Sentence (Fig. 3) and Homebound (Fig. 7), and highlighting the issue of cross-cultural exchange. This artist is one of many exhibiting cultural exchange within art as a manifestation of hybridization of different cultures, even if the artist does not acknowledge this multiplicity. …

From Runway To Museum: Creating Successful Exhibitions Showing The Interrelationship Between Fashion And Art, Erica Kroening

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Historically, high-end fashion has been reduced to ideas of materialism and functionality in the eyes of the average person. What has commonly been overlooked on the runways of New York, Paris, and Milan was the idea of fashion as an object of art. Some designers, artists, and art historians have always given fashion the warranted classification as art, but this concept is not yet accepted by the regular museum visitor. This paper focuses on three high-end fashion exhibitions that show when a designer’s inspiration and vision is successfully translated into a museum setting, it encourages the visitor to see the …

The Hierarchy Of Rococo Women Seen Through Fashion Paintings, Sanda Brighidin

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The style of Rococo evokes a variety of feminine attributions; women were usually depicted in works of art in a decorative manner. Many of the interpretations of these paintings focus on the luxurious clothes and lavish backgrounds. Artists like Jean-Antoine Watteau and Francois Boucher were responsible for elevating a very elegant view of Rococo women of Rococo within the public’s eyes. But there were also depictions of non-aristocratic women that were geared more to the middle class (bourgeois). After reading a number of articles and book chapters on Jean-Baptiste- Simeon Chardin, and visiting the Louvre museum in Paris, I became …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

Art In The Capitol City, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Art and Music

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Minnesota State University, Mankato.