Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Veneers And Vignettes: Staging The Mountain West, Matthew Jones

LSU Master's Theses

Veneer (noun): An attractive appearance that covers or disguises someone or something's true nature or feelings.

Vignette (noun): A small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border.

This exhibition, Veneers and Vignettes: Staging the Mountain West embodies my pursuits to contextualize my place in the Mountain West, my home. These works seek to understand how the extents of time, circumstance, and people have shaped the contemporary cultures, environment, and implied trajectory of the decades ahead. What legacies have we imprinted upon this place and with what repercussions? I feel uneasy for my home in …

Understanding Clay And Its Media Properties Through The Expressive Therapies Continuum, Anne Geisz

Art Therapy Counseling Final Research Projects

For centuries, clay has been used by civilizations to hold food, memories, and records of history. To this day, it is used by engineers, hobbyists, artists, art therapists and many more. This art based, heuristic study explores clay through the researcher’s ongoing practice with the material, within the framework of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) and examines how its unique media properties make it such a versatile material for both ceramic artists and art therapists. Results exhibit these unique media properties and clay’s ability to reach all levels of the ETC through collected data of images, journals, critiques, and notes. …

Squaring The Circle, Carter Pasma

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

“Squaring the circle” is often used as a metaphor for trying to do the impossible. In many ways, this relates directly to my life and the path I have chosen as a ceramic artist. Living in a world of mass production, people often overlook and under appreciate handmade objects. The pots I create are designed to make the person using them notice and appreciate the thoughtfulness of something handmade.

It is comforting to make objects that will ultimately be used to enhance someone’s daily routine. Reflecting on this as a ceramic artist is what drives me to create pots that …

To Excavate An Absence, Margaret Compton

Graduate Theses

This thesis is an exploration of memory’s fluctuating aspects, utilizing natural materials and casting processes to create a sculptural body of work deeply rooted in materialized metaphor. Examining the relationship between mold and cast, part and whole, and interior and exterior, I utilize casting as a framework to understand the duality of remembering and forgetting. Memories, much like the natural landscape, are ephemeral, fading, and fracturing over time. Both external environments and internal mental landscapes share the common language of erosion, existing as present or absent, remembered or forgotten. Conestee Nature Preserve in Mauldin, South Carolina, serves as my “site” …

Finding The Perfect Purple: An Exploration Of Glaze Making And Chemical Safety In The Pottery Studio, Kara Eppard, Michael Hough

ASPIRE 2024

This project was undertaken as an IDS-100H course linkage between ceramics and chemistry. Through time spent reviewing literature and time in the studio, a project was developed that allowed the application of technical skills of each discipline in a creative fashion. The creative focus of the project was to find a suitable purple glaze to utilize on a previously thrown pottery collection. During the project techniques in glaze making were explored. Over 25 glazes were tested, and two firing techniques were explored. Additionally, safety within the pottery studio was increased through aspects such as the development of an MSDS, and …

Permutations, Casey Beck

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I make pottery not only out of a passion for my material, clay, and for the complex processes of wheel throwing and atmospheric firing, but also out of a passion for living with, using, and sharing handmade objects. For me, using pottery daily is an act of celebration. My philosophy of making pots comes in part from the particular history of utilitarian pottery that has developed over the last sixty years in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, where I went to school and began my career as a potter. More recently, the form language that I employ in my work has …

Or To Be Eaten Alive, Christopher Williams

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

“or to be eaten alive'' is a multimedia exhibition in which I merge my own coming of age story with a mythological ecology. In this work I reclaim my queer identity by communing with my past selves in a fantasy world created through the lens of Queer Ecology and Queer Eco-Futurism. The visuals in this exhibition obscure reality. They are abstractions of the landscapes I occupy—particularly the Tallgrass prairie and Ozark ecoregions. Through a speculative, fantasy world the exhibition introduces moments of adoration, death, fracturing, growth, joy, and failure. I form, draw, color and arrange the work embracing mistakes and …

Ripe Spoils, Yan Cynthia Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Chen’s practice primarily focus on sculptures and installation. She explores the interplay between the idea of nature and the constructed environment, by examining how language informs what we know. The central thesis, "Ripe Spoils", employs citrus fruits as symbols for bodily experiences and personal identity, investigating their cultural and historical significance. Her sculptures summon the qualities and embedded meanings in materials like paper pulp and clay, wax and citrus fruits, often resulting in abstracted forms evocative of the human body. This thesis paper and exhibition reflect on themes like mortality and the essence of self.

Chinese-English Dictionary Enable Select Search …

The Coevolution Of The Six Ancient Kilns And Japanese Postwar Local Identity, Benjamin Lewis Rothstein

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

The arts have long been tools used to prop up political visions, and Japan’s traditional crafts are no exception to this trend. Japanese ceramics in particular have enjoyed, or perhaps endured, era after era of patronage by successive governments and movements over their more than a millennium of history. Appropriated by a wave of nationalism in the Meiji period, the rokkoyō (six ancient kilns), long famous for their rustic style and acclaimed tea wares, were converted along with many other traditional crafts into symbols of the Japanese national spirit. In the postwar period, however, without necessarily losing their national importance, …

Formed By Fire: A Global Story Of Women And Clay, Denise Tepe

MA Projects

In 1971, art historian Linda Nochlin implored the art world to be introspective of its long-held, male-centered narratives when she published the profound essay ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ Nochlin articulated the individual and societal factors that have disadvantaged women collectively and have historically kept them from receiving the same level of recognition as male artists for the same quality of work. This essay, compounded with growing feminist sentiments of the late 20th century, insighted art world institutions to highlight and recontextualize the art of women. These institutional efforts have culminated in female artists having a renaissance …

Material And Making: An Exploration Of Georgia Wild Clays, Nina Samuels

Honors College Theses

Wild clay is an abundant and diverse material that has a long history with both utilitarian and decorative uses. Since the industrial revolution, processed and manufactured clay bodies have become commonplace. However, there has been a recent resurgence in the use of wild clays in contemporary ceramic practices for the purposes of material connection, accessibility, and sustainability.

This thesis explores the abundant wild clays of Georgia including the sourcing, processing, testing, of these materials. It also shows examples of the portfolio of work that was created with this research.

Commonplace, Heather Lepp

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The paper as follows will explore the conceptual and aesthetic decisions behind my MFA thesis exhibition titled Commonplace. It will outline my personal history, philosophical outlook, and conceptual framework behind making utilitarian pottery to elevate daily experiences. It will also investigate my individual exploration into beauty in relation to the process of making my work. Formal considerations such as visual, tactile, and functional aspects of the work will be addressed. Sharing, gathering, and preparing food influences me as a maker, and being attentive inspires me to create utilitarian wares that are used as cherished tools to enrich daily life.

Floral Alchemy: Decorative Porcelain Tableware, Stacy Lynn Larson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis accompanies and addresses work shown in my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Floral Alchemy: Decorative Porcelain Tableware, at West Virginia University. Within this document, I address my research, inspiration, and process as I created the body of work shown in my thesis exhibition. My personal fascination with plants and flowers stimulates my research in the relationship between flora and humankind. Throughout history, plants have consistently had a deep impact on human culture as seen in mythology, language, ritual, art, and medicine. With an understanding of this historical context, I analyze my personal connection with flowers in …

How I Came To Jam With The Angels Of The Dirty South: A Journey Into Art And Art Education, Miki Skak

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper dives into my personal journey from a far-left activist youth into becoming an artist. It explains how a poet saw artistic potential within me, introduced me to the world of art and eventually art education. I reflect on the art education I have received from several different art schools and how they try to adapt to the demands of the contemporary art world that has been in a constant condition of reshaping itself since Marcel Duchamp’s readymade. As an artist who is less focused on the techniques of traditional artistic mediums, I investigate how the state of art …

Rooted In Meaning: Plant Iconography On Nasca Polychrome Ceramics, Amanda G. Lange

Theses

This thesis explores the Nasca use of plant iconography as part of their polychrome ceramics produced at the end of the Early Horizon around 100 BCE to those produced in the beginning and middle of the Early Intermediate Period circa 1to 450 CE. During this time the religious site of Cahuachi was in use as a pilgrimage center as well as the production center of polychrome pottery. The Nasca created their colorful ceramics here to distribute to visiting pilgrims during times of festival or ritual. The culture’s iconography has been studied extensively, most of which focuses on the forms of …

Green + White = Pink, Dora Chen

Masters Theses

My thesis seeks to explore the unknown forces that are constantly shaping our lives. I am intrigued by the intangible connections that link people, objects, and places together, and how they manifest across space and time. As a ceramicist emphasizing both interiority and tactility, my work will dissect layered ideas of closeness and disruption in order to reveal a nuanced understanding of how we exist in perpetuity with what can’t be seen. I wish to explore this topic through carefully directed installations that emphasize intimacy and engagement among audience members. Through inspiration from my past experience, childhood memories, as well …

Spaces Of Wait And Their Weight, Eman Alhashemi

Masters Theses

i have been exploring, researching and observing what influences affect a space within the traditions, rituals, food, thoughts and behavior. what happens when that space of comfort disappears and changes? through a series of work that waits, melts, merges, and exaggerates in am attempt to find its place. as i borrow objects and movements from daily life observing my surroundings and extracting mundane things that take on different forms whether exaggerated or unidentifiable. this recent culmination of work over the two years at risd look at objects and spaces of waiting, discomfort, longing and sharing. our behavior is affected by …

Silhouette, Andy Bissonnette

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

As a potter, I am deeply interested in the union between form, surface, and function. I believe these elements are intrinsically connected and the most successful pots are able to balance all three in a way that is both aesthetically pleasing and practical. From the proportional relationship between the foot and rim, to the way a glaze breaks or pools across an articulated surface, each detail is crafted with intention and care. Silhouette is a metaphor for how I conceptualize and conceive each of my pieces. It’s a way to explore form through both an aesthetic and practical approach. My …

Through The Kaleidoscope, Andrea Simpson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Andrea Simpson, a California-based artist with a BA and MA from the California State University of San Bernardino, draws inspiration from the transformative power of psychedelics. Her artistic style merges vibrant colors, rhythmic patterns, and abstract forms, showcased across diverse mediums including ceramics, glass, and painting. Simpson's dynamic and experimental approach to art invites viewers on a mesmerizing journey that merges music, psychedelia, and contemporary art, providing a unique and immersive encounter.

Tea Service: Queering Time And Creating Community, Lauren Wheeler

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the concept of queer temporality and the importance of community in a person’s quality of life. Contrast between traditional English tea service and unconventional, queered tea service is used in dualistic metaphor to explore the contrast of community with people who seek to uphold cisheteronormativity and with people who disrupt it. Further, tea can be seen in various contexts as a site of social resistance. Queer temporality can be defined as the nonlinear and unconventional uses of time which are experienced in opposition to cisheteronormative temporalities. The importance of community amongst queer individuals is emphasized through shared …

The Day Before The Day, Marlaina Lutz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The reason any particular moment has the potential to change the course of your life is because of the accumulation of meaningful moments that happened in between. The in between is where care happens. It’s where acts of kindness are done without witnesses and where vulnerability is met with an unconditional reception. It’s where trust is built and where our darkest and brightest parts become exposed. Can you remember what you did the day before you decided someone was your best friend? Or what you did the day before you spoke to a parent for the last time? What about …

Tea Time With The Devil, Hamish Jackson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Tea time with the Devil

Tea Time with the Devil began with the hypothesis that I could create a diverse palette of glazes from one local material. I chose to base my experiments on a granite from Devil’s Playground in western Utah. I collected its rocks, hauled them back to USU and crushed them into powder. Each glaze contains at least 50% of the Devil’s granite. This palette resulted from much trial and error — mostly error. Between 2020 and 2023, I ran thousands of glaze tests to formulate and hone these surfaces.

Why this place and material?

The wild …

Bloodlines, Tyler Dallis

Master's Theses

Connections are valuable in everyday life. Bloodlines speaks about my personal connections to my biological, adoptive, and found families, along with my heritage and what it means to be a contemporary Indigenous artist. I am not much of a sentimental person when it comes to physical objects, but I collect memories of the people closest to me. Through the process of collecting memories, I am creating a mental Rolodex of experience, people, things, and events from my life. When building my pieces, I braid these memories into the clay as I coil the form to completion. Embedding them into the …

Everything Changes, Nothing Dies., Olivia S. Stinson

Master's Theses

My recent work directly responds to my current state of being. The past three years have °been the peak of the exploration within myself, learning the capacity of my mind. I’ve spent my time in the heat of trauma, filled with anger and resentment. I’ve spent time in a steady state of confusion, wondering who exactly I am and who I want to be. I am in a constant state of change, thinking deeply about my actions and how I can improve on processing the correlating emotions. Creating a body of work during times when listening to conversations within the …

Crafting Community: A Ceramics Center, Nadia Mechboukh

Theses and Dissertations

For artisans, being part of a community can facilitate engaging with the public. Networking and collaborating with peers are vital for building meaningful relationships that can lead to mutual inspiration and learning opportunities. By strengthening the connection between society and various forms of craft, we can weave invisible threads that link the stories that craft tells with the time and place in which they were created. Pottery is a craft that has existed for thousands of years. Ceramics and clay have carried the history of communities and their ways of living through centuries and have been used as identifiers of …

Frewayni's Garden: Preserving Tigrayan Culture During A Period Of Ethnocide, Gabrielle F. Tesfaye

Theses and Dissertations

The recent and ongoing genocidal war in Tigray, Ethiopia, has witnessed the destruction and looting of countless historical religious sites, ancient manuscripts, and artifacts, leaving Tigray’s remaining cultural heritage extremely vulnerable. Such cultural loss erases a shared understanding across generations, robbing them of their history and identity. My work contributes to the safeguarding of Tigray’s cultural heritage and collective memory, informed by literature on cultural preservation efforts in post-war societies, and a series of interviews with Tigrayans in the diaspora and in Ethiopia.

The outcome of this thesis is embodied in a series of distinct jebenas, traditional Tigrayan clay coffee …

Exploring Growth, Integration, & Play Working In Clay: Finding Pathways To Healing And Hope, Dana A. Bridges

MSU Graduate Theses

I find therapeutic qualities in all the aspects of my studio practice and haptic experience: from the grounding sensory experience of clay, the quiet meditative motions of creating and constructing, acceptance or repair of mistakes, and the integration of failures which may occur. Specifically, I channel my experience to explore the themes of growth, integration, and play. By exploring these themes in the quiet and safety of my clay-studio, I engage in the opportunity to investigate these themes on a formal, practical, and personal level. I create the forms by hand or on the potter’s wheel. After constructing the forms, …

In Between Lines: An Investigation Of The Ghanaian Migration Experience, Teddy Osei

MSU Graduate Theses

As my socio-cultural experiences continue to evolve, so does my interest in contemporary border discourses. The question of ''who qualifies to be where and how,'' lingers in my mind daily as I reflect on my migration experience as a Ghanaian living in the United States of America. Another area of interest is the social and physical challenges endured by individuals transitioning from one geographic location to another.In replicating these experiences, I make ceramic sculptural vessels associated with sojourning. In my ceramic sculptures, I use specific elements, such as ropes and Ghana must-go bags, which honor Africa's past and its people …

Warmth Of The Sun, Drake M. Gerber

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Warmth of the Sun, is a reflection on personal experiences I’ve had in the landscape while living in the Northwest. This curated experience is an attempt to capture my sincerity towards a place and hold onto that feeling. I intend to share faded memories of personal experiences through enigmatic sculptures to make the viewer look a bit closer at these objects and see the landscape in a new way. This paper explores thoughts on the idea of place, material, process, contemporary influences, and the experiences that inspired this body of work.

A Fragile [In] Tension, Jose Homero Gutierrez, Jose Homero Gutierrez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The exhibition, a FRAGILE [In] TENSION, is a compilation of 6 sculptural installation works—the result of two and a half years of work in the ceramics workshop— combining various ceramic procedures, incorporating crochet techniques, and repurposed materials. Each of the materials represents specific memories of the past linked to a place of origin and people deeply attached to me, representing complementary feelings. Ceramic objects were created on the potter's wheel and subsequently joined, modified, intervened, and added to their corresponding installations following a series of self-directed design rules. The sculptures are an emotional, psychological, and physical response to the past …