Art and Design Commons^™

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

Photography, Architecture, And Environment: An Architectural Analysis Of Edward Ruscha’S 26 Gasoline Stations, Rebecca Tonguis

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

This presentation explores Edward Ruscha’s photobook 26 Gasoline Stations through an architectural lens. Specifically, it treats Ruscha’s work as historic evidence of how consumption, industry, and commodity have infiltrated all kinds of environmental contexts through architectural manifestations. Known for being the first artist’s book, 26 Gasoline Stations ambiguously exists as both fine art and documentation of everyday conditions, with the overall graphic character highlighting its perceived focus on overarching narrative. Since gasoline stations are the primary subject of each of the 26 photographs, the subject of this work is arguably architecture, suggesting that the historic relationship between mass gas consumption—or …

Behind The Lens, Jolie M. Adams Miss

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

What Fuels Me as a Photographer?

Many photographers don’t realize their ability and opportunity to give back and make a difference. I believe photography extends beyond taking a series of photographs. For me, it is my way of serving others, connecting with people, and sharing their stories. I believe photography is a powerful tool to inspire change in communities—especially in those that are underserved. Photos are visual statements of humanity: an abstract of our failures, ignorance, arrogance, compassion, resilience, progress, and so much more. I want my photography to go beyond a small circle of influence. All of us have …

7th Annual Chapman Staff Art Exhibition Program, Chapman University Staff

Library Displays and Bibliographies

The Leatherby Libraries Hall of Art was established to showcase the creativity of the Chapman community. It was dedicated for this purpose in 2014 although the space has been available for staff and student exhibits since 2011. While past staff art exhibits featured work by Leatherby Libraries staff members only, this is our fifth year opening up the exhibit to any interested staff member of Chapman University.

The 21 artists represented here demonstrate the wide variety of talent at our university. From photography to painting, mosaics to film, the works you see here provide a unique opportunity to view and …

Spit Brimming With Futures, Penny Molesso

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

SPIT BRIMMING WITH FUTURES is an immersive video and audio installation that uses ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) to investigate the intersection of transgender and neurodivergent identity, expressing an urgent need to imagine stories about transgender, autistic people that affirm our agency and autonomy amidst a political climate that weaponizes neurodivergence to delegitimize trans experiences. The American political right’s vilification of transgender people is used to uphold structures of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy that become destabilized when rigid binary gender categories are challenged. The political right has a vested interest in keeping trans people out of public view, thus weaponizing …

Magic Mirrors, Jamie Ho

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

When a beam of bright light hits the convex and polished surface, an image is reflected back onto the wall. This is a description of a magic mirror, an object from the Han Dynasty (206 BC -24 AD), that embodies how Euro-America views China: both technically advanced and shrouded in mystery. The magic mirror also points to the history of photography, as this term was often used in the Victorian era to describe a camera. The image created by a camera is a mimic of reality, both all too familiar and unfamiliar.^[1] Like magic mirrors, the GIFs I create …

Am I Another You?, Laura Diane Cobb

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

On my birth certificate are the names of my parents, though the name of my father stands in opposition to my genealogy. The script of his signature conceals my birth as donor conceived (DC). The truth of my origin would lay dormant for years behind his scrawl, burying my true heritage beneath the stories of my social father’s ancestry.

Learning the truth, I began to reevaluate my identity. Searching for myself along waterways, I explored the shores of the Platte River as if by knowing its sandbars, flora, and fauna, I would come to know myself. In searching the land, …

Jogakpo Window (7 Feet X 4 Feet), Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

Materials: glass, sunlight, post-it notes. Image description: Photographs show a large window covered with a 조각보 patchwork of colorful post-it notes. Sunlight illuminates the paper.

A Photo Documentary: Exploring Queer Identities In Kwazulu-Natal, Nicholas Graves

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Media can be a powerful tool in examining the structures of power that both hinder and advance LGBTQIA+ representation and subsequently, lived experiences. Therefore, being able to understand the varying feelings that everyday South Africans feel towards queer people, will be measured through the media that people consume. For the vast majority of South Africans, this would look like movies, TV soap operas, and discussions that take place on the radio. Understanding the role media plays within the country is vital to understanding the overall progress that has been made.

The media’s ability to reflect lived experiences within gay and …

The Relationship Between Photo Retouching And Color Grading, Ivan Magrin-Chagnolleau

Presidential Fellows Articles and Research

This paper deals with photo retouching and color grading. It proposes a simplified workflow for both of them. It also points the commonalities and the differences, and further explore the relationship between the two, including a phenomenological point of view as well as an aesthetic point of view. It also discuss the implications of that relationship in pedagogy.

Photography Is All We Need - Photography Is Never Enough, Lex Thompson

Art and Design Faculty Works

An essay about the exhibition Surface Tension, curated by Michelle Westmark-Wingard, at Bethel University’s Olson Gallery. Featuring four artists working with photography: Sophia Chai, Paula McCartney, Christine Nguyen and Letha Wilson.

Black Mental Health: Unravelling The Stressors And Stigma Surrounding The Mental Health Of Black Men, Joel Isimeme

Masters Theses

Mental health and illness have become increasingly relevant concerns in contemporary society. While the collective conversation around psychological health has begun, within the black community, mental health remains taboo. Mental illness is seldom seen as affecting black people. All individuals, however, are susceptible to mental illness, especially black men of African descent. This thesis, therefore, aims to explore the everyday experiences that adversely affect the mental health of black men. Specifically, it seeks to identify the factors that contribute to this mental ill-health. To this end, it will examine the role of society, religion, and the media in stigmatizing poor …

To Shake, To Shatter, Sydney Whitten

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

To Shake, To Shatter is a photography project about memory, family and relationship with one’s self. All images are taken on large format film, in Nashville Tennessee and Whitten’s home town of Carlock, Illinois.

For this series, Whitten explored her family archives to gather film stills from her childhood. She turned those stills into 30 x 40 inch prints, which would later be placed around Nashville to be photographed. These stills provided a way for the past to entangle itself with the present. She found theses still to interact hauntingly and romantically with the light and the shadows of the …

With Kindest Regards To You And Miss Sparks, Claire E. Kelly

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

This work explores the life of a woman, Katherine Josephine Sparks, who lived in Nashville from 1910 to 1993. Vignettes of her life are revealed through the Katherine Sparks Collection at the Nashville Archives, in which over 18,000 items including letters, photographs, memorabilia, and legal documents house parts of her family’s story. Katherine lived an unassuming life, she never married, and she had no children. There is very little documentation of her life left other than what is held in this archival collection. Without the archive, this record would be lost—a small part of history that would go undiscovered and …

Take Your Time, Terry A. Ratzlaff

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

I see the world not as one seamless world but as a world composed of other worlds, built on top and within one another. They exist harmoniously, bound not by space but by time. In an instant I can move from one world into another where I can exist in two worlds simultaneously—in space, I am here. In time, I am there.

Worldmaking is a conceptual process of seeing connections and making distinctions within our lived reality.1 It is a process of dividing and organizing parts into collections that represent different narratives. Only through suitable arrangements can we handle vast …

Ua1c11/110 Frank Pittman Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Photographs of guitar building workshop.

Final Report: Iconoclast And London Children's Connection Internships, Veronica Botnick

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In my second year of university, I joined an on-campus magazine, Iconoclast, as an assistant director. In my third year, I continued with Iconoclast as a director and started another internship with the London Children's Connection. Both projects have shown the effects of different language choice. With Iconoclast, I learned the importance of taking a less academic writing approach in theme descriptions and editors' letters. A neutral tone reaches a wider audience and ensures that readers from any background gain a full understanding of our theme. At the London Children's Connection, a simple change in choice of words can improve …

Photography & Visual Perception, Rachel Leigh Bell

Open Educational Resources

This online class introduces students to the basic materials, terms and methods of digital photography. Students will be introduced to the digital camera, including camera settings and controls, but can also work with any photographing device. This is a hands-on class and students will photograph subjects indoors and outdoors, upload, edit, and print image files. Students will complete photo assignments throughout the semester as well as a final project that incorporates the techniques and themes covered in the course.

Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, Lauren Paljusaj, Anne Savage

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner

Most of us know Nevada beyond the Strip. It’s a place of houses, of shopping plazas, of movie theaters, and grocery stores. A place of hotels that are also places of work. A place of basins, ranges, vistas, and nature. A place of personal history. For Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, curators Lauren Paljusaj (ENG BA ‘20) and Anne Savage (CFA BA ‘22), draw on photographs found in UNLV Special Collections to uncover the intimate visuality of a Nevada of past centuries. The exhibition focuses on how the imaged built landscape of early 20th century Southern Nevada …

Alternative Processes In Photography, Maria Politarhos

Open Educational Resources

Course Description:

This class introduces students to unconventional photographic processes. Students will explore historic methods and materials that allow the extension of photographic imagery beyond the standard black and white or color print. The class will experiment with handmade emulsions and papers, incorporating photographic imagery into new and varied contexts such as drawings, paintings, and made books.

Francesca, Madison B. Jones

2020 Symposium Creative Works

Created using instant film, this piece was taken apart and destroyed before a new image was formed. Looking at the image from the back and scraping and sanding at the layers of chemicals was an attempt at finding some remnant of the original image. It is delving into the idea of the importance of content within an image and explores the resurrection of an image in a new way.

“Polaroids From Heaven”: Collaboration Between The Marian Library And The Course, Alternative Photography, Jillian M. Ewalt, Carrie K. Chema

Marian Library Faculty Presentations

This presentation covers a collaborative project between the Marian Library and the Department of Art and Design at the University of Dayton.

Kai Duc Luong Interview, Stuart Hutson

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio Born in 1975 in Phnom-Penh, KAI-DUC LUONG fled the oppressive Khmer Rouge regime from Cambodia to Vietnam to France, where his family settled in Paris, in 1978. KAI-DUC operates between Chicago and Paris. His artistic projects include video (art / doc / film), photography, and mixed media installations. His unconventional path as a self-taught outsider artist, trained in digital communication & systems engineering, gives him a unique perspective, at times questioning subject matters through the understanding of transmission and systems (e.g. the primary emotions, the five senses, the stages of grief, the art industry). His works have been …

Kelvin Burzon Interview, Maya Boustany

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Kelvin Burzon is a Filipino-American artist whose work explores intersections of sexuality, race, gender and religion. He was born on March 26, 1989, in Bataan, Philippines. As a child growing up in a Filipino culture, Burzon’s initial ambition was to become a Catholic Priest. “I have always been interested in the religion’s role in culture and familial relationships and have been drawn to the religion’s traditions, imagery, theatricality, and its psychological vestige.” His work is inspired by cerebral influences growing up in and around the church. “My cultural and familial identity, my memories as a child, cannot be separated from …

Exploring The Enneagram Through Visual Aesthetics: Profiles For Personal Home Décor, Sarah K. Casmass

Masters Theses

The home is an environment that is the prime center for self-expression, personal sanctuary, and solace. On a psychological level, the home is a representation of the individual and, therefore, that individual should identify and find pleasure in their personal home space. Decorative art has long provided visual solutions for our innate desire to accentuate our spaces and express ourselves. However, there is a need for a connection between the visual arts and the augmentation of our basic psychological needs through home décor. With countless resources available for an individual to become more self-aware, there is a deficit in the …

Melding The Mediums: Combining Fine Art, Graphic Design And Product Photography To Create Commercial Images, Natasha Lawrence, Rion Huffman

Posters

This project grew from a little girl enjoying paint by numbers, to an undergraduate student’s passion for graphic design and photography. The poster will showcase that student’s ability to synthesize information about fine art, graphic design and product photography techniques to create a series of finalized composite images with com­mercial value. The documentation of this academic journey will serve as a roadmap for others to understand the challenges and the overall process to meld these three mediums.

Ua1c2/83 Structures Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of structures on WKU campus. These include the bridge at the fort, the Cherry Sundial, Cherry Statue, Creed Monument, Diddle Statute, Guthrie Bell Tower, proposed Memorial Tower and the Spoonholder.

Ua1c4/7 Student Groups & Association Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of student groups and associations not otherwise listed.

Ua1c8/2 Illustrations / Artwork Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of illustrations and artwork used in publications.

Livelihoods Of The People Of Mazumbai: A Collection Of Stories And Portraits, Tanga Region, Tanzania, Joseph Baldus

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite rapid urbanization in Tanzania, agriculture remains central to the nation, the economy, and the livelihoods of a large portion of the population. Smallholder farmers account for the vast majority of agricultural production, yet are an extremely vulnerable population due to poverty, single-sourced income, and climate-dependency for both subsistence and cash-crop agriculture (Rapsomanikis, 2015). This report explores these dynamic rural livelihoods through interviews and portrait photographs in a case study on Mazumbai, Tanga region, Tanzania. Semi-structured interviews explore the people’s modes of economic subsistence, domestic lives, education, challenges, and life stories. Excerpts from these interviews combined with portrait photographs create …