Art and Design Commons^™

Things That Are Long, Frankie Gutierrez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Bigfoot has become an important motif for Frankie Gutierrez, especially since his transition in 2021. The characters in this exhibition showcase the deeply personal exploration of transness and non-mainstream trans identities, the in-depth observations of others, and their interactions with transgender people. He compares transness to the likeness of bigfoot, typically an elusive and hard-to-find character that everyone suspects, but has rarely been seen. Evidence of their existence surrounds us, but only those with open minds can truly see them. The characters in this show look like you and me, and no one at all. This exhibition is not meant …

I Buried The Fireworks Under The Tree, Sihan Zhu

Masters Theses

Unreachable memories always surround me. I've been trying to extract logical parts from my chaotic memories, hoping to find a connection with the world within the soundless, intangible black fireworks stored in my retina under the grand fireworks display. When I first encountered intaglio printmaking, I impulsively drew subconscious memories on the plate, arranging them along some chaotic storylines. Gradually, I realized that I needed to create my own logical structure. So I started using specific visual symbols and repeating them, using the repetition of the printmaking process to search for logical clues. Printmaking with its special rhythm allowed me …

Mycelium, Minjoo Lee

Master's Theses

Mycelium (noun)

/mʌɪˈsiːlɪəm/

plural: mycelia

the vegetative, root-like part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white thread-like filaments (hyphae).

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From as long as I can remember,

I’ve drawn inspiration from nature. I’ve always looked to create art and designs that contain the same visual elements and story-telling that is so present in nature.

In mycelia, I found inspiration in the fact that they are vital in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for their role in the decomposition of material. They give life to what has died, turning negative into positive.

TATUME ISLAND Tattoo Studio was born out …

Strange Creature, Dagny Walton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Strange Creature is an exploration and renovation of the myth of the American West. I extract elements from the known and recognizable myth of the West and create my own rendition, focusing in particular on themes of transformation and violence. Here in this black mirror world, animals speak out loud, cowboys face down a wildland with eyes, and two suns light up the lonely sky. There is no continuous narrative thread, but each piece is a vignette that takes place in a single shared world. This world is at once familiar and completely alien. I intend to surprise the viewer …

Barking With The Dog, Cameron Orr

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Artist Statement

“Barking With The Dog” got its’ title from a poem by Leonard Cohen:

I never really understood

what he said

but every now and then

I find myself

barking with the dog

or bending with the irises

or helping out

in other little ways

“Barking With The Dog” is a series of illustrative collages, linocut prints, an upcycled bench containing personal artifacts, drawings and collage on the walls and floor. These pieces are connected through visual content, physical medium, and artistic intention. The collages are made using upcycled prints and drawings. These pieces represent the early stages of …

Existence Stories, Althea Keaton

Masters Theses

Existence Stories is an interactive activist art project that gathers personal narratives from people about the ways in which their lives have been impacted by the current political climate in the United States, particularly surrounding the 2016 Presidential election and its aftermath. The project harnesses first-person narrative and audience participation as tools for humanizing the “Other” and building connections between people through the act of sharing stories. As the project has progressed over time, it has evolved in multiple directions and come to incorporate a variety of media, primarily comics, animation, printmaking, and zines. The roles that reproduction, distribution, and …

Journey To My Roots, Ainura Ashirova Barron

MSU Graduate Theses

This autobiographical body of work is a visual journey that involved the investigation of my personal identity and roots as well as the exploration of my cultural history through a process that relied on photographs, stories and family traditions, such as crafting. I consider this process and practice to be my passage into a globalized society while simultaneously finding my niche in my newly adopted country of America.

To The Moon And Back, Michael Tyler Pennekamp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Almost fifty years after the Apollo 11 mission, the moon landing remains one of humankind’s most remarkable technological achievements. On the lunar surface, the Eagle’s flight crew left behind an American flag, mementos honoring those who lost their lives in the quest for such an achievement, and a plaque reading, “Here men from the planet Earth set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” Despite overwhelming proof of this achievement—radio transmissions, photographs, film, rock and soil samples—a sizable minority of Americans continue to view the Apollo 11 moon landing as a hoax. To …

Auras, Adele Ball

Scripps Senior Theses

Auras is a series of illustrations of Carlos Fuentes’s novella, Aura, a horror love story about memory, obsession, desire, corporeality and immortality. Defying narrative conventions, the story is told through second person. You are the protagonist, Felipe Montero, and are employed by a 109-year old widow to edit her husband's memoirs. Inside the pitchblack house, you fall in love with her beautiful and bizarre green-eyed niece, Aura. The gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion.

The story seems to take place within the confines of the …

I Made Some Prints, Teresa O. Tempero

All Master's Theses

In discussing the prints and drawings chosen for this study, I wish to consider mostly subject matter and composition, giving less mention to technique. The three forms of printmaking used are intaglio, collagraph, and woodcut. A specific theme was not chosen for these prints. Since printmaking has been such a relatively new experience of expression for me, I chose to concentrate this study on the printmaking process.