Art and Design Commons^™

The Rise Of Judaic Calligraphy In The Twentieth Century, Stephen Michael Cohen

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Excluding religiously required safrut (e.g., handwritten Torah scrolls, mezuzot, tefillin, gittin), artistic aspects of Judaic calligraphy declined after moveable type was invented in the fifteenth century. Rediscovery of medieval calligraphic techniques in late nineteenth-century Britain, plus contemporaneous typographical studies in Germany, spurred revival of artistic calligraphy. The first Arts and Crafts movement, pre-World War I German research into aesthetic letterforms, and the Bezalel Academy sparked a rise of secularized Judaic calligraphy. Growth of folk arts and ethnic pride in the 1960s and accessible photocopiers in the 1970s allowed nonspecialists to become expert calligraphers.

The Art Of Tom Farris

Louise Pound: A Folklore and Literature Miscellany

No abstract provided.

Shaping The Witch: A Visual Art Thesis, Amanda Cobb

University Honors Theses

This thesis is an exploration of the complex and interconnected nature of folklore, personal mythology, and re-enchantment as expressed through the lens of puppetry. I have drawn inspiration from the works of deeply reflective works concerning the psychological nature of mythologies of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, as well as the magical and beautiful work of artists Jim Henson, Brian and Wendy Froud, and Mercer Meyer. Through working in the medium of puppets, I have given consideration to the possibilities and limitations of these forms in expressing the complexity of narrative, personal mythology, the anxiety of disenchantment, lost and reclaimed …

2022 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2022 IGGAD Conference: Who Owns This? Communities, Heritage, and Preservation.

Eagle Eye Vs. Gear Jammer, Jessica Danielle Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

Where similarities in class struggle have historically operated as a unifying force globally, the American crafted mythos isolates the individual and dehumanizes those that do not fall within the parameters of the cowboy archetype. The national protagonist is turned into a class traitor and an extension of government power.

Bakeneko: A Look Into The Origins Of Japan's Supernatural Cats, Cedar Taulbee

University Honors Theses

Cats are strange and mysterious creatures. Cultures all around the world have created myths and legends surrounding house cats, stories laden with superstition and usually a touch of fear. In most of the West we have black cats and their association with witches and black magic. In Ancient Egypt, as most of us know, cats were worshipped as sacred animals. And in Japan there are bakeneko.

I use bakeneko as a general term, but what I am really referring to is kaibyo, which is a Japanese word used to describe supernatural or "strange" cats. And Japan has a …

2020 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2020 IGGAD Conference: Without Borders: Tracing the Cultural, Archival, and Political African Diaspora.

Downey, John Michael, B. 1951 (Fa 1350), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1350. Folklife project titled "Antiques" by John Michael Downey for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Project includes an illustrated paper about the acquisition and use of antiques collected by friends and family members in DeKalb and Haralson counties in Georgia, Warren County, Kentucky and Rockingham County, Virginia. Survey sheets may include brief description of antique’s origin, use, sample of handwoven coverlet, color photo, illustration, text classification, and bibliographic source.

Thomas, Patricia Lee (Fa 1330), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 1330. Short narrative paper titled “An Allen County Tombstone Maker” written by Patricia Thomas for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Includes biography of tombstone maker William Chase Bonner of Halfway, Kentucky. Also includes photographs of several tombstones crafted by Mr. Bonner for family members. Mr. Bonner was Thomas’ great-grandfather.

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, Sarah Adcock

Graduate School of Art Theses

I view my creative process as alchemy, the transformation of materials through experimentation. I use wax as a material that transcends its historical use as a sculptural process for casting and instead, use it for its transmutable qualities to inform content. Because of its plasticity and duality as fragile and resilient, wax is symbolically submissive and assertive. By applying heat, wax can be molded and formed into new shapes. Once it cools, wax reverts back to its natural state; solid and impermeable. I use objects to explore desires of origin and life. Transitional objects, the first “me not me” possession …

Schottenfeld, Judith Dian (Fa 1309), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1309. Student folk studies project titled “Construction of the White Oak Basket, ”which includes an interview with Walter Logsdon about the traditional basket making process in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Project includes sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, tool, and photo.

Strange, Kendrick Clayton, B. 1973 (Fa 146), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 146. Paper entitled "Basketmaking: A Folk Art and Family Tradition" written by Kendrick Clayton Strange for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Strange discusses two family members who had a long history of making baskets, a distant cousin Audie Denison and his grandmother Oma Strange.

Waldrop, Melanie (Fa 1310), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1310. Student folk studies project titled “Basketmaking for Walter Logsdon: ‘A Way of Life,’” which includes two interviews with Walter Logsdon about the traditional basket making process in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Project includes sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, tool, and photo.

Fekety, Steve (Fa 1311), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1311. Student folk studies project titled “Basket Making,” about the traditional basket making process in Wax, Grayson County, Kentucky. Project includes sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, illustration, material, tool, and/or photo.

Sadewasser, Judith K. "Judi" (Fa 1308), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1308. Student folk studies project titled “The Folkways of Walter D. Logsdon: Basketmaker,” which includes an interview with Walter Logsdon about the traditional basket making process in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Project includes interview transcriptions along with sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, tool, and photo.

Documenting Tradition: Images From The Kentucky Folklife Program Archives (Fa 777), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 777. Photographs and captions used for a 2013 exhibit at the Kentucky Museum, Western Kentucky University, titled "Documenting Tradition: Images from the Kentucky Folklife Program Archives" featuring images form the KFP Archives that were transferred to WKU in 2013.

2019 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2019 IGGAD Conference: Tracing the African Diaspora: Places of Suffering, Resilience, and Reinvention.

Future Of Appalachian Culture, Emily Hilliard, Travis Stimeling, Michael Kline, Carrie Kline, Trevor Mckenzie, Nancy Abrams, Torey Siebart, Chris Haddox, Mehmet Oztan, West Virginia University Press

Exhibit Panels

Appalachia is often associated with its traditional arts and culture, but that does not mean that we are stuck in the past. Local traditions often play a crucial role in galvanizing forward-thinking cultural institutions, involving artists and workers alike in making new futures that are still distinctively Appalachian. This section of the exhibit highlights this kind of work from the West Virginia Humanities Council, Arthurdale Heritage, and more, connecting to a traditional past to new traditions yet to be forged.

Heritage, Tradition, And Craft In Quiltmaking (Fa 1131), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1131. Collection contains Interviews, photographs, and informant data sheets relating to Sandy Staebell's project with quiltmakers in Allen County and Monroe County, Kentucky and Macon County, Tennessee for the 2017-2018 Osby Lee Hire and Lillian K. Garrison Hire Memorial Lecture Series.

Ohio River Survey (Fa 656), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 656. Kentucky Folklife Program project titled: “Ohio River Survey,” which includes interviews, tape logs, photographs and other documentation of folklife along the Ohio River in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Interviews may include a description of belief, traditional occupation, practice, craft, or tool, informant’s name, age, birth date, and address.

Houk, Charlotte F. (Fa 1190), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1190. Student paper titled which Charlotte Houk examines the artistic aesthetics of mailboxes within a 10-mile radius of her home in the Lonoke Community in Hart County. Houk’s interviews focus on the creator of the mailbox, their inspiration behind the designs, and additional information concerning mailbox construction and presentation. Black and white photographs of each mailbox are included within the paper.

Powell, Steve (Fa 1195), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1195. Student paper titled “Quilting for Frugality” in which Steve Powell interviews close family members and friends about their experiences with quilt making. Powell offers a brief biographical background on each informant along with individual motivations and inspirations for crafting quilts. The paper includes color photographs of various types of quilting patterns and one sample of a quilting square.

Straub, Karen (Fa 1196), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1196. Student paper titled “Mrs. Robert H. Saylor in Doll Making” in which Karen Straub interviews Mrs. Saylor, acraftswoman and doll making enthusiast. Straub offers insight into Saylor’s personal history with doll collecting and doll making, the materials Saylor uses in order to sew her products, the research and inspiration behind the process, popular trade publications and clubs relating to doll making, and specific step-by-step instructions on how to complete several varieties of dolls.

Rizer, Michael C. (Fa 1186), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1186. Student paper titled “Early Toy Making” in which Michael Rizer interviews two sets of couples, the Barnes and the McKees, regarding their crafting ability as it relatesto miniature, hand-carved furniture. Rizer offers a brief description of each toy maker and details the various types of materials, models, and carving techniques used in the creation of the miniatures. Included in the paper are color photographs of the craftsmen and women along with pictures of their wooden furniture pieces and one reel-to-reel audio tape of interviews conducted by Rizer.

Rains, B. Mickey (Fa 1178), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1178. Student folk studies project titled “The Crafting of Hickory Bottomed Chairs” which includes interviews and survey sheets about the process of making hickory bottomed chairs in Macon County,Tennessee. Sheets may include a brief description of a practice, a hotograph, and text classification.

Morris, Brenda (Fa 1166), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1166. Student paper titled “Quilting” in which Brenda Morris explains the process of piecing together a quilt. Morris, who worked directly with long-time quilter Oma Grant, includes step-by-step instructions along with photographs at various stages throughout the course of crafting. Also included are design patterns and completed samples of handiwork.

Kezar, Jovanna (Fa 1153), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1153. Student paper titled “Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village: The Shakers Today” in which Jovanna Kezar details her visit to the Shaker community located near Poland, Maine. Kezar gives a brief, albeit thorough, history of the Shaker experienceas it relates to spirituality, organization, and guiding principles such as mottos, beliefs and practices, forms of worship, and governmental structure. Kezar also describes her trip to the Shaker village and provides color photographs and slides of buildings and photographs along with newspaper clippings, postcards, and assorted stationery.

Wood, Diane (Fa 1155), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1155. Student folk studies project titled “Folk Art and the Pennsylvania German” which includes survey sheets with a brief description of Pennsylvania German and other folk art collected in Burton, Ohio and Warren County, Kentucky. Sheets may include an item or representation of folk art, brief description, photograph, and origin.

Hoyt, Roy (Fa 1145), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1145. Student paper titled “Upholstery – A Folk Occupation” in which Roy Hoyt speaks with Frank Black, a resident of Burgin, Kentucky and “the last of the true ‘tufters’ in his portion of Kentucky.” In the interviews conducted by Hoyt, Black, who had been a craftsman for more than three decades, details the tools, materials, and processes used to upholster furniture. The paper also includes occupational anecdotes and color photographs of Black’s workshop, machines, and finished products.

Monstrous Maternity: Folkloric Expressions Of The Feminine In Images Of The Ubume, Michaela Leah Prostak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubume is a ghost of Japanese folklore, once a living woman, who died during either pregnancy or childbirth. This thesis explores how the religious and secular developments of the ubume and related figures create a dichotomy of ideologies that both condemn and liberate women in their roles as mothers. Examples of literary and visual narratives of the ubume as well as the religious practices that were employed for maternity-related concerns are explored within their historical contexts in order to best understand what meaning they held for people at a given time and if that meaning has changed. These meanings …