Art and Design Commons^™

This Is How I Heal: Reclaiming Pleasure And Safety In The Body After Trauma, Rosalie Weber

Scripps Senior Theses

I’ve used this project as an opportunity to continue my personal healing journey in the wake of a sexual assault a number of years ago, using the guiding question: how do I reclaim pleasure and safety in my body after trauma? My work explores the process of healing through experiences of joy, playfulness, and connection, asserting that pleasurable experiences are possible in the same body that has experienced trauma. My work involves and celebrates the relationships that have supported me in my healing journey.

These tapestries were created in intimate events between myself and one other person, chosen for the …

The Self, My Self, And Female Portraiture, Kenza Fernandez

Scripps Senior Theses

Growing up in Mexico was a privilege for many reasons. I am most grateful for its history of preservation and storytelling through art, specifically portraiture. I learned about my country's history and its most influential figures primarily through visuals. From mesoamerican sculptures to Mexican modern mural art, one did not have to be literate or speak vernacular Spanish to understand the story of our culture through time. It is this visual way of recording history that I have decided to turn to for interpretation and self exploration. Throughout the course of this academic year, I will be creating a series …

Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton

Scripps Senior Theses

I constantly experience external pressure to make identity-related artwork in response to the ongoing racial-reckoning occurring in the United States.

Initially, I was concerned with the pitfalls of creating identity-art. One of which being pigeon-held as a Black artist— whose sole function is to share my vulnerable experiences —and be commodified and diluted for superficial consumption. A Black artist whose work would only be valuable when institutions needed to satisfy a diversity quota, a Black History Month initiative or to conduct damage control after being “canceled.”

All of which may very well still happen. I’ve utilized this project to work …

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

Scripps Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …

Passe Pas: Rethinking The Passport, Miriam E. Bankier

Scripps Senior Theses

Filled with national symbols, stamps and basic identifying information, a passport can obscure the humanity behind the individual passport holder, inverting it from a symbol of citizenship and belonging to one of marginalization and xenophobia. In today’s political climate, the meaning of art has become intersected with politics and the law. Using the very tools and some processes of passport production, i.e. mixed media and printmaking techniques, my work responds to and disrupts the bureaucracy and impersonal settings involving passports and identification documents. I draw from my own experiences and privilege as having Austrian, Italian, and American citizenship, as well …

Facing The World: The Unapparent Merits Of Makeup, Ishbel A. Mccann

Scripps Senior Theses

The act of applying makeup is a ritual shared by many, often beginning at an early age. Though makeup is presented as a final product in the public sphere, the process of applying makeup can be just as, if not more important. This thesis acts as the theoretical basis for my digital art project, Facing the World. My work gives insight into the lesser understood motivations behind wearing makeup while shedding the stigma that wearing it is merely a superficial act or sign of vanity. The project Facing the World presents the makeup routines and personal narratives of seven …

Field Guide, Madeline Helland

Scripps Senior Theses

Field Guide is a mixed-media artist book detailing the exploration of a fictitious culture through cartography, narrative, and illustration. It is presented through the lens of an amateur archaeologist, navigating a chain of islands to search for ruins and artifacts. In part, the project is focused on the fantasy of an imagined world. The island chain is a place entirely of my own creation. By creating the viewpoint of an outside explorer, it was possible to navigate through this world. Although I, as the artist, can know everything about this fictitious world, adopting the perspective of someone distanced by time …

Disruptions Of Normalcy: Subverting Discomfort And Expanding Social Perceptions Of Art Through Process-Based Experiences, Ariana Steiner

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores the artistic theories of social practice and examines the artwork of Michael Rakowitz, Carmen Loch and Ernesto Neto to observe the ways artists can expand traditional understandings of art. Looking at art therapy and the ways that participation in art can make art more accessible and functional, this paper also outlines a project which functions to bring comfort to participants and expand boundaries of art through individually shaped personal experiences.

[Rebelution 17]: Gender Bender, Francesca Louise Inocentes

Scripps Senior Theses

Fashion embodies what is accepted and valued in a given culture or society and empowers individuals by building self-confidence, enabling them to express themselves authentically through their bodies and garments. The gender binary, perpetuated by the mainstream fashion industry, marginalizes individuals who do not conform to it. In Rebelution 17, I utilize clothing design and photography to empower and liberate individuals who do not conform to the standards of beauty in regards to gender identity and acceptability. The finished works are featured in a Lookbook – a digital and physical collection of photographs used to market fashion – designed …

The Ceramic Body: Concepts Of Violence, Nature, And Gender, Chrysanna R. Daley

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is an exploration of the connection between women and nature, specifically the violence that has been inflicted upon them both and how it is interrelated. I positioned my research within the field of Ecofeminism, which critiques the language we (as a Western culture) use to associate women with nature and vice-versa. Traditionally, women are more often associated with nature than men are, and the environment is personified as “Mother Nature”. I argue that uncritically gendering nature as “female” is problematic because of the associations we typically make between the two, and the expectations and values we assign to …

L'Art Et L'Amour À Travers Un Amour De Swann De Marcel Proust, Sarah M. Robertson

Scripps Senior Theses

The esteemed French author, Marcel Proust, revolutionized the way that literature fuses with visual art. Through the detail of his novella Un Amour de Swann, Proust creates a world in which the idolatry of a painting destines one man to a life void of fulfillment in love. This thesis explores the intrinsic connection of painting and literature to love through Proust’s treatment of the Botticelli fresco, Les Épreuves de Moïse, and the carefully crafted lesson that Proust teaches to integrate art into the fabric of life. Proust’s advice reaches far beyond the constraints of his own words, and …

Interior, Concept And Clay: A Study Of Self And Space, Lily Alan

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper considers theories of perception, interaction, and being as a historical and philosophical foundation for themes of space and the self within art; namely, my senior installation, Interior, Concept & Clay. Beginning with a biological discussion of the eye’s perception, the paper moves on to Kant’s theories of Differentiation of Direction in Space. From there, I discuss Gaston Bachelard’s text The Poetics of Space as an investigation of personal awareness within domestic interiors. Finally, I study the vast and varied philosophical notions of selfhood and no-selfhood with the help of John Canfield’s The Looking-Glass Self: An Examination of …

Women And Video Games: Pigeonholing The Past, Allison Perry

Scripps Senior Theses

Academic work dealing with the overlap between video games and female representation is limited in both volume and proper research. Most texts agree on three supposed flaws with video games: they alienate female participants, there are no games for female players, and female players cannot relate to female characters. This thesis sheds light on these points, not only citing specific counter-examples, but also showing how many of these issues reflect on a larger societal problems.

The Feminine Ideal, Rosalena L. Miller

Scripps Senior Theses

While footwear was originally meant to protect the feet and enable the wearer to span larger distances and rough materials, today shoes are often seen as a fashion statement and a sex symbol for women. In his book, Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things, Marcel Danesi examines how high heels have moved away from the original purpose of shoes and now “seem to contravene this function. They are uncomfortable and yet millions of women wear them." They have moved from practicality to a sign of femininity, sexuality, and power.

Dancescape: A Work In Thetranslation Of Bodies And Movement, Julia Allisson Cost

Scripps Senior Theses

Translation is inevitably challenging work. When the human body and its movement are the subjects translated, the work may be particularly difficult, as questions both technical and ethical may arise about the representation in the second medium. Yet the exercise can also be very illuminating, creating space for insights that may not have been possible without the translation. For my Scripps College art thesis, I have created a series of paintings of Western dancers and researched four artists whose work involves bodies, movement, or dance and whose approaches differ tremendously. These artists are Edgar Degas (1834-1917), an impressionist painter known …