Looking To Entangle, Alex Mclaughlin

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

What kinds of images stick with you? Are they the ones that are readable, understandable right from the get-go? Surely not. Likely, they’re the ones that challenge you, frustrate you, and entangle you in the process of trying to understand them. This thesis argues that the semantics of looking, and the way in which the art-object is experienced through the process of looking, creates the opportunity for the unique engagement of the viewer as more than a bystander. By frustrating them with a lack of information, or rewarding them for looking harder, the artist can make the viewer aware of …

A Peeling Art, Terry Rim

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Action is greater than words, interaction is greater than viewing, and experience is greater than theory. So I came up with a way to make my art into an act of criticism toward consumerism. My art resembles colorful Pop Art on the surface but follows the defiant spirit of Dadaism at the core. It reveals the content full of dark humor and cynicism once the viewer “peels off” the appealing surface by interacting with it. The four artworks analyzed in the paper — Hole, The Twelephone and Alarming Alarm, Self-Destructive Ashtray, and Heavenly Cow — are designed …

On The Six-Cornered Snowflake, Jackson Hescock

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

On the Six-Cornered Snowflake, named after Johannes Kepler’s 1611 essay on geometrically covering surfaces, is both the title of both my final thesis work and essay. Beginning with an inquiry into the nature of hand-made object as intrinsically valuable, my earlier sculptural work surrounding quilting is broken down and considered as a form of reverence for the American object. This is partly achieved through a comparison to traditional Japanese packing techniques and how my own assembly mirrors and converses with the graceful and sensitive packing of Japanese hand-made goods. Early 20^th-century flight experiments are also hand-made objects of …

To Dig A Hole And Fill It Back Up, Jackson Whetstone

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Abstract:

The socioeconomical philosophy of the United States is still very much related to the Marxist Labor Theory of Value which states that “the economic value of a good or service is determined by the amount of socially necessary labor required to produce it” (Das Kapital, Marx 1.) This philosophy has penetrated the way that we think about art and object, and in turn positions art as a means of transaction, thus limiting art to a form of glorified currency. This Essay will chronicle my art practice, that have led up to two thesis pieces, Trench and Dig …

A Meditation On Loneliness And The Mind's Limits: Combining Buddhism And Art To Better Understand Our Relationship To The Unknown, William Masters

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In this essay, I explain how my art practice instigates inquiry into uncomfortable subjects such as loneliness and how our limits of perception and cognition prevent us from understanding and connecting fully with our environments. I begin by illustrating how I make such subjects more approachable by exploiting the inherent capacity of art to be both pleasurable and painful: a work's pleasing aesthetic can make one more receptive to its disquieting content. I then describe how eastern philosophy and western art have influenced my practice. I highlight how Buddhist insights into the relationship between calmness, security and clarity have informed …

A Loud Volume Landscape, Grace Buyers

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

It feels more like sounding it out than constructing it. Choosing and adapting images, concentrating on the auxiliary fragments (out-of-focus elements, the corner of the table, the reflection in the window, the highway median) and the backgrounds (the sky and its clouds, the gravel ground, the movement of the water, the horizons where these meet), I then breathe them together. The final products are primarily collages, and though they are originally constructed from printed media and found objects, their final forms are scanned and rematerialized. The content of these works focuses on the relationships between the chosen fragments and how …

Drawing As Process: Expansiveness Through Constraint, Ciel Miao

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

This paper explores the concept of drawing as a time-based practice, where the process is the core of the artwork rather than the finished product. I divide my artistic concerns into four chapters, each advancing on the previous one, to discuss my drawing practice, which allows for exploration of time and space across a wide array of media and styles of representation. I embrace impulse and intuition in the mark-making process, letting go of control while prioritizing the form of depicted figures over their image. This paper highlights the importance of my inner contradiction and how the process reflects my …

Melting, Dripping, Becoming: The Operations Of Memory From The Perspective Of Wax, Naomi Yu

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In my thesis, I explore how different compositional and material techniques are used to re-create a memory. Looking at artists such as Kiki Smith, Guadalupe Maravilla, and Anselm Keifer, I investigate the ways in which they utilize 2D and 3D materials to re-create feelings of memory.

I argue that the art object can conserve and portray memory through metaphorical acts of preservation. I will be specifically studying the acts of encasing and layering as a means to simulate the feelings of memory. I argue that these metaphorical actions create an artificial sense of time that imbues these objects with created …

Mothering As Feminism, Meera Patel

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This critical essay proposes the concept of mothering-as-feminism, with the intention of interrogating American ideals of mothering and caregiving. Reforming the way we view mothering, as it relates to feminism, requires a re-evaluation of the American role of women and mothers—and how they are portrayed (and therefore seen and understood), valued, and supported. Focusing on the evolution of feminist theory throughout the past 70 years, as well as personal and secondary experiences, I demonstrate how political and social change occurs generationally and is dependent on the education of our children. Ultimately, I show the important role children’s literature plays …

Queering Up For Battle, Alex Davis

MFA in Visual Art

In this text, I explore the potential for interwar European art to serve as a catalyst for the contemporary Queer rights movement. Drawing on the works of Remy Jungerman, LJ Roberts, michá cardenas, and Joar Nango, alongside the insights of Queer theorists Lisa Duggan and José Esteban Muñoz, I analyze my own artwork and the way I remix elements of both Russian Constructivism and Queer culture.

Amidst the current proliferation of anti-Queer violence and legislation, I highlight the importance of safeguarding Queer spaces and communities. To this end, I collect Queer objects and organize them into an arsenal of triangular …

The Voice Of One Crying In The Wilderness, Megan Kenyon

MFA in Visual Art

I am a Midwestern, Christian, and feminist artist. I make work about the beautiful, broken, and absurd ways in which American evangelical culture influences lives, especially women’s lives. I’m dragging everything into the light by deconstructing and critiquing the world in which I live, move, and have my being. I do this by harnessing prophetic imagination and incarnational space to shine a light on how patriarchy infects evangelical Christian theology and practice. Using prophetic imagination through photographic self-portraiture and text (my own and found texts using the Bible), I seek to make plain the effects of white, Christian patriarchy on …

Elsewhere: In Defense Of Daydreaming, Alex Braden

MFA in Visual Art

Much like music, organic life is an absurd, improbable, and serendipitous instance. I set circular, electric, acoustic, and magnetic forces in motion and allow them to coalesce freely in the hopes of synthesizing unexpected moments of beauty, connection, and harmony.

Dear Sycamore, Anna Schenker

MFA in Visual Art

I create paintings, sculptures, and rubbings to pay tribute to the earthly beings found within my immediate surroundings. I use indexical processes that stain, trace, and record to preserve a moment in time. The process of rubbing is a tactile and meticulous activity of excavation. It is an imprint of what was once there, a mapping of attentive contact. The works are dependent upon the physicality of the host as I engage directly with the plants, seeds, weather, and trees that surround me. The rubbing’s flatness actively constructs a new reality; a liminal space hovers between the impression and the …

Forget Us Not, Jamie Harris

MFA in Visual Art

I create because I mourn, to seek comfort in the knowing and sharing of Suppressed Histories, and to find joy in the rediscovering of lost stories. I create the vessel, which for me is akin to the human body. A form containing memories, wisdom, a soul, and a space for transportation between plains. I paint to capture moments in times of joy and sorrow. To make memoriam, I pay homage to past, present, and future.

This Is A Present From A Small, Distant World, Samantha Slone

MFA in Visual Art

I make toxic pastoral paintings in the style of the Dutch and Old Masters, and media installations which depict natural landscapes as distanced, deconstructed forms. What I explore most in my practice is our damaged relationship with land and nature, and our capitalist and media ecologies as artificial landscapes which suspend us from the natural. In a dissection of the dualisms of man and nature, and progress and sustainability, I create microcosms of our detached condition.

Proceed With Caution: Fashion And The Case For Media Literacy, Stephanie Silva

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay shows how one can further one’s media literacy by examining episodes of fashion as a cultural phenomenon and not an insular art practice. These episodes include Martin Margiela’s tabi boot and cultural appreciation; a Björk album cover and its potential yellowface; and the Rick Owens Spring 2014 show and the question of who gets to profit from representation in high fashion. This essay also confronts the role the Internet plays in educating the masses about fashion, both as a tool and as a distraction, and questions how a platform like Diet Prada affects fashion culture. Finally, this essay …

Monster Planet Bounty Hunter, Arthur Santoro

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In this paper I will be discussing my personal interest in games and art as well as my experience and process working on my original board game: Monster Planet Bounty Hunter. I will also discuss my visual influences, how I approach making games and why I think games are an important form of art.

Perils Of The Heroine: The Historic Role Of Woman In Comics, Britain Bray

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Now more than ever the comics industry is welcoming diversity in its creators and stories, but with its historically misogynistic past, what legacy are creators inheriting? This essay seeks to explore that history, delving into the various eras of American Comics and how sexism shaped them. From the earliest heroines of the 40s, the ground-breaking feminist indie comics of the 70s, and the rampant female sexualization of the 90s, examples of brilliance and drudgery will be investigated in order to gain a better understanding of how comics became what they are today.

The Dark House And Its Inhabitants, Emily Bielski

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

From the inception of the genre, Gothic horror has been fixated on the domestic space in distress. This essay explores domestic archetypes and roles of the Gothic novel, serving as a “tour of the house”, analyzing the iconography of the dark castle, and how it externalizes and exacerbates the fears and behaviors of its inhabitants. The power dynamic of the household is starkly divided by the expectations and authority of masculine and feminine figures. In turn the “house” becomes a vehicle for the anxieties of the inhabitants—both experienced and inflicted—regarding gender, sexuality, isolation, and abuse. Exploration of the visual and …

Prosthetic Traveling Companions, Carrie Keasler

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the potential for narrative art (film, literature, comics) to be a transformative experience in the life of the consumer (viewer, reader) through a sensuous, embodied interaction with that work of narrative art. Drawing from film, narrative and comics theory as well as primary sources, I show that there is potential for consumers to engage in reading and viewing in an embodied way that allows them to take on these experiences as new memories, highlighting the ability of art to engage our senses in a manner that is similar to everyday lived experiences. In contrast with some theories …

Carefree Black Girl: Trope Or Treasure?, Erin Williams

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Abstract: The writing below is an experimental study on the idea of the “Carefree Black Girl,” a term coined in 2017 to define a way of life for Black women to emulate, focused on self-care and self-love. I write about its popularity and meaning, with parallels to my own life and mental health in order to define if this term is actually an attainable state of being or is more of an aspiration. I also paralleled the marriage of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, conducted an independent poll with a small circle of Black, female contacts to learn about their knowledge …

My Kinship With The Trees, C. Daniela Shapiro

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This paper explores facets of patriarchy affecting women and the natural world. The paper suggests a cultivation of allyship and relationality between women and nature due to a shared experience of objectification within patriarchy. The separation of women from nature through origin stories, science, religion, language, and advertisement will be discussed. Examples from the graphic memoir Running without Moving are employed to emphasize this philosophy, including first person accounts.

Shambles & Crowley: Autobiographical Fiction In Four Panels, Shumyle Haider

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This paper explores the development of Shambles & Crowley, a collection of autobiographical fiction comic strips featuring Shambles, a burnt-out boy, Crowley, a loudmouthed crow, Franz Kafka, a silent companion, Saadat Manto, a prankster, and God, an overbearing authority figure. Drawing inspiration from comic strips such as Peanuts by Charles Schulz, Calvin & Hobbes by Will Waterson, and shows such as Louie by Louis C.K, and Mr. Robot by Sam Esmail, the stories explore the inner conflicts of Shambles, which are induced by struggles with love, loneliness, depression, and faith.

Land | Lineage, Allena Marie Brazier

MFA in Visual Art

Land | Lineage is an in-depth text of my thoughts and tha artistic choices I make within my work. In my thesis I use tha concept of Black Ecology to understand art rooted in tha relationship between race and geography. Black culture and city spaces in proximity to natural landscapes, or edgelands, reveal tha social and physical conditions of a place where these two worlds collide and form distinct characteristics of site, sound, and human interaction.

My research also focuses on tha theory of place-based works to reconceptualize the lost stories and complexities of city trauma and joy within my …

Every Rock Has A Soul, Karen Yung

MFA in Visual Art

My studio practice focuses on the Asian American diaspora and the feelings of displacement that arise from being away from one’s homeland. This paper traces the beginning of my journey to find a way to make art that observes and applies Buddhist philosophies, practices and acknowledges the intrinsic energy found in all things. I create sculptures inspired by the qi of rocks to explore my ongoing struggles with my bicultural identity. Through the continuous pouring of wax and plaster that create stalagmites on to domestic objects, I imbue positive qi into my artworks to pass on to whoever seeks it. …

Other Oceans, Other Skies, Sharlene Lee

MFA in Visual Art

I create immersive installations, performances, and time-based media artworks that delve into stories of belonging, feminism, and language as power. These stories offer a potential for transformation from viewer to participant and a shift in how our world is seen and experienced. Through an exploration of perception and affect, I challenge dominant narratives, prompting a contemplation of contemporary power struggles for control.

In this text, I examine the impact of historical borders and migration on my life while also investigating questions of home, shared values, and rituals that contribute to one’s sense of belonging. I also highlight my commitment to …

Ambivalent Images, Beloved Objects: Building Bridges Between Picture Books And The Tangible World, Danielle Ridolfi

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

"Ambivalent Images, Beloved Objects" examines how pedagogical theories prioritizing objects and direct sensory experiences in early childhood can be applied to the creation of picture book illustrations. In doing so, it positions picture books as educational tools, and advocates for the importance of using them not to recreate nature, but to connect readers with the tangible world of natural and human-made objects that our digital-driven culture eclipses. It strives towards a unifying pedagogical and aesthetic philosophy that accomplishes what illustrator Eric Carle characterizes as a bridge between the tactile world of objects and the world represented in illustrations.

This exploration …

Legends Of Light: Crafting Middle Grade Fantasy In The Tradition Of Catholic Philosophy And Medieval Visual Culture, Bernadette Lamb

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay promotes the writing and illustrating of middle grade literature that mirrors the wonder-inducing experiences of leafing through an illuminated manuscript and stepping into a Gothic cathedral. An examination of Catholic medieval visual culture moves into a discussion on its underlying philosophy and theology, which are profoundly centered on relational healing and the dignity of the human person. Christian writers including St. Pope John Paul II, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Josef Pieper, Madeline L’Engle, Dr. Bob Schuchts, Makoto Fujimura, and Andrew Peterson inform an exploration of mercy, forgiveness, and love as self-gift in the context of illustration and storytelling …

Personal Narratives & Their Unique Personalities, Aayesha Ejaz

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay uncovers the motives behind memoir-writing, and explores the idea that it can serve as a gift—offering the audience some consolation by sharing one’s personal and emotional experiences. Since memoir-writing is an act of generosity, the essay also endorses the principle of crafting these narratives with love and one’s being—hands, voice, and other tangible ingredients. It focuses primarily on explicit storytelling through music, picture books, comics, et al. It also looks at some relevant terms like catharsis, misfit, vulnerability, and rigid gender roles in our world (school and society). On the whole, the essay encourages finding an outlet for …

Azul, Amarillo, Rojo, Jorge Rios Morales

MFA in Visual Art

My most recent body of work was produced out of the pleasure of exploring pure formal and processual painting. In this text—divided by sections titled like a traditional opera to highlight the mise-en-scene quality of my artwork—the reader will find clues about the context, inspirations, and desires that led to my current practice, such as my ambivalent condition as an immigrant, my exposure to post-conceptual abstraction embodied in Christopher Wool’s provocative oeuvre, and my interest in offering the viewer the experience of what I call “an aesthetic interrogation.” l have privileged in this thesis my own voice and character with …