Art and Design Commons^™

Cherokee Abstract Artist Leon Polk Smith: A Convergence Of Traditions, Danielle Montanino

Dissertations and Theses

This paper analyzes how Leon Polk Smith's Indigenous roots and upbringing in Indian Country had a significant impact on his artistic practice in a time of discrimination and segregation in the United States. Through examination contextualizing his work within the history and political events of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations it is revealed how Polk Smith developed a formal language that could navigate both worlds and be viewed through a pure abstraction lens or a lens embodying his Indigenous traditions. In addition to his Indigenous philosophies, Mesoamerican Inca Nation’s cultural motifs further ground Polk Smith’s Indigenous aesthetic, and avant-garde …

The Modern Formulation Of Chinese Art History And The Building Of A Nation In Early Twentieth-Century China, Chennie Huang

Dissertations and Theses

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Chinese formulation of art history underwent dramatic changes. It moved away from the traditional narratives that did not follow a strict chronology to adopt the Western linear model which emphasizes progress and national identity. Based on the premodern tradition, the modern formulations of Chinese art history began as a political strategy for nation building amid the political upheavals, including military attacks on China that led to the end of Qing imperial rule and the beginning of the Republican era (1912-1949).

In the early 1900s, while exiled in Japan, Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873-1929), …

Gender Bias And The Evaluation Of Players: Voice And Gender In Narrated Gameplay Videos, Robin April Crowell

Dissertations and Theses

This study evaluates perception differences of male and female narrators in video game tutorials. Video games have long been considered a masculine pursuit, and because of this, women have endured unpleasant surroundings and interactions in gaming and related communities. With the proliferation of technologies like Twitch and YouTube gaming, gaming is more communicative than ever, increasing potential for problematic interactions. Recent booms in these technologies emphasize the importance of understanding how varying demographics are perceived, as these perceptions influence interactions, potentially limiting the likelihood of women and others' involvement and interest.

Involvement in technology during youth is associated with interests …

Expressionist Art And Drama Before, During, And After The Weimar Republic, Shane Michael Kennedy

Dissertations and Theses

Expressionism was the major literary and art form in Germany beginning in the early 20th century. It flourished before and during World War I and continued to be the dominant art for of the Early Weimar Republic. By 1924, Neue Sachlichkeit replaced Expressionism as the dominant art form in Germany. Many Expressionists claimed they were never truly apart of Expressionism. However, in the periodization and canonization many of these young artists are labeled as Expressionist.

This thesis examines the periodization and canonization of Expression in art, drama, and film and proves that Expressionism began much earlier than scholars believe and …

Rational Design Of Materials For The Protection Of Outdoor Metalworks, Natasja Alexandria Swartz

Dissertations and Theses

Protective coatings are commonly used to protect culturally significant works, such as outdoor sculptures and architectural elements. Given the valuable nature of such metalworks, there is a surprising lack of environmentally sustainable coatings available for their conservation. High performance clear coatings are not developed or thoroughly tested for compatibility and longevity on outdoor sculptures. This can make the implementation of both methods and materials, no matter how promising in a lab, a significant hurdle for the conservation science community. This dissertation work initially aims to replace high-VOC formulations such as acrylic lacquers and waxes currently used as protective coatings for …

Some Neglected Aspects Of The Rococo: Berkeley, Vico, And Rococo Style, Bennett Gilbert

Dissertations and Theses

The Rococo period in the arts, flourishing mainly from about 1710 to about 1750, was stylistically unified, but nevertheless its tremendous productivity and appeal throughout Occidental culture has proven difficult to explain. Having no contemporary theoretical literature, the Rococo is commonly taken to have been a final and degenerate form of the Baroque era or an extravagance arising from the supposed careless frivolity of the elites, including the intellectuals of the Enlightenment. Neither approach adequately accounts for Rococo style.

Naming the Rococo raises profound issues for understanding the relations between conception and production in historical terms. Against the many difficulties …

Crafting A Space: A Feminist Analysis Of The Relationship Between Women, Craft, Business And Technology On Etsy.Com, Elizabeth Gillette Offensend

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, craft fairs, shows and markets where crafters sell their handmade goods such as pottery, jewelry, handmade clothes and needlework have grown in popularity across the United States. A common intent among individuals in this community echo political statements made by the turn of the century Arts and Crafts movement, while there are political aspects of the community that can also be seen as an extension of the third wave feminist do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic of the late 1990s. This newly enlarged community of crafters that congregates in person also has a strong online presence. Etsy.com plays a large …

Fort, Da : The World Of Play, Kevin Marc Ginger

Dissertations and Theses

The theoretical and contextual placement of my work is informed by child development psychology. The intention is to evoke and analyze what children do, not to imitate. My use of faux fur, comforting blankets and the form of play balls all function to create objects and environments that lend themselves to absurdity, humor, and of course child-like play.

"fort, da" is titled in spirit from Sigmund Freud's observation of a child throwing a toy with an accompanying statement fort, German for "gone." The child then delights in retrieving the object while exclaiming da or "here."1 The anxiety …

Textuaries, Patricia Millar Boas

Dissertations and Theses

The paintings, sculpture and digital prints presented for this thesis explore language as a field where sense and non-sense coexist With my focus on the activity of deciphering, both literally and metaphorically, I have examined the play between word as image and image as word. What poetry lies embedded in the strange physicality of familiar graphic marks? What is the pleasure we find, as the poet Robert Pinsky suggests, in language only partly understood?

Following the lead of the Surrealists, who used the camera to investigate the paradoxical notion of reality as a sign, I amassed a collection of newspaper …

Sticks And Vines, Kimberly Jennings Bellavia

Dissertations and Theses

This investigation is intended to give form and contrast of body and mind, as a state of "being" and "becoming". The physical body of work was created from subjective associations based on the notion of "being". The purpose of this investigation is to give meaning to the notion of "being" through the comprehension of both aspects of human nature and nature enabling me as a sculpture, to comprehend and balance technical efficiency with conceptual insight.

Opus Caementicium: My Work In Concrete, Thomas J. Botkin

Dissertations and Theses

I developed an interest in concrete by working in the building trades. How could such a base material be so fascinating? It had the fluidity of a lava flow, the ugliness of scat and the power of gravity. The last two years have been spent using concrete as a sculptural material. The results of my research "Flips," "Fills," and "Plops," are inquiries into the nature of concrete.

Spira Mirabilis, Kim D. Ray

Dissertations and Theses

My graduate work, culminating in Spira Mirabilis, my final thesis project, has been about a search for simplicity. What I have discovered along the way is complexity. In searching for a fundamental principle that generates a complex form, I discovered an apparently simple form that is, rather, a consequence of complex relationships. By creating a work that is grounded on a fundamental, universal principle, I hoped to evoke a subliminal or other-than-conscious response that would effect a transformation in the viewer. Ultimately, I found my own transformation through the creative process, and acquired a new viewpoint through a minimal expression …

The Theory Of Nothing, Adam Wieslaw Rupniewski

Dissertations and Theses

My work was presented in the form of an installation. Using three and two-dimensional objects, as well as sound and light, I created a site specific type of installation. Materials involved in this project were hydrostone, plaster, steel and copper. The sound I recorded on my steel sculptures in an acoustic space and then mixed to create sound compositions to amplify the feeling for the space. This installation reflects my pursuits in painting and sculpture, as well as my interest in music and light effects. Its philosophical and spiritual content were expressed through visual language, symbolic use of elements and …

Patterns In Rhetoric : Critical American Foreign Policy Toward Hungary, 1848-1956, Timothy S. Moon

Dissertations and Theses

During three critical junctures between 1848 and 1956 America's Foreign policy towards Hungary took on a similar pattern of strong rhetoric on Hungary's behalf with little or no action. These critical periods involved the Hungarian revolution and its aftermath between 1848 and 1852, the brief period of democratic government in Hungary following World War I, and the Hungarian revolution in 1956. The Rhetoric by the United States regarding Hungary in these instances was also directed more as a treatment of American domestic and or foreign policy interests that were not necessarily related to Hungary. This thesis is an analysis of …

Abstract Art And Controversy: A Case Study Of Louis Bunce’S Airport Mural And Other Portland Art Controversies, Michael P. Craven

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines a series of controversies in Portland, Oregon during the 1950s triggered by the placement of modem art in strategic public locations. This study examines the controversy surrounding the installation of Louis Bunce's mural at the Portland International Airport and the series of modern art controversies that followed the mural incident.

Preternatural Rhythm: A Vernacular Application Of The Systemic Grid With Respect To The Influence Of Organic Processes, Mark Richardson Smith

Dissertations and Theses

The practice of Systemic Art was first introduced under the pretext of Minimal/Conceptual art processes in the 1960s, which incorporated the presentation of empty gridded armatures and self-referential charts, (termed non-relational arrangement) as a means of democratizing esthetic content. Systemic objects stressed industrial fabrication and materials m their manufacture over traditional notions of individualized craft, with the intent to demystify the role of the artist in the creative process. For those reasons, systemic practice has remained highly influential among artists concerned with the public context of aesthetics, although its recent applications have gravitated towards incorporation of disparate materials and …

Combining The Historical And The Personal In Painting, Christopher A. Shotola-Hardt

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis project consists of five large scale, abstract paintings executed on Masonite panels. A major component of these paintings is the heavily built-up surface texture. In order to achieve this heavy, sculptural surface, plaster and acrylic media have been applied in an aggressive, spontaneous manner using variously-sized masonry knives. The paintings are largely action-oriented. They are non-neutral, and they bespeak a great deal of intensity on the part of the artist.

The five paintings contain emotional content based upon personal experiences and family history. In some cases, I began a painting with the subject matter clearly in mind. In …

Seed Pods, Bases And Formalism: An Artist's Journey, Craig Luster

Dissertations and Theses

A sculpture can offer visual information that is simple or complex. The work can present only a single facet to ponder or deal with all facets equally polished and linked. There can be enough information to arrange in an order that reads as narrative. All is possible but, without question, the more complex the sculpture, the more information given, the greater the challenge to the artist to make a coherent and interesting whole of everything being presented. The body of work presented in my thesis show represents the outcome of exploring a chain of questions about sculpture. The first question …

Subject/Matter, Gilles J. L. Foisy

Dissertations and Theses

The process of obtaining the Master of Fine Arts degree led me to probe the aims and methods of my artmaking. What emerged and became uppermost was the issue of form and content or perhaps form versus content. While highly concerned with the formal aspects of art, content (subject matter) would not fade from my intentions or cease to occupy my mind. Through much "soul searching" and inquiries into numerous materials both familiar and new to me, I concluded that my intended content was about my experience of being. I further distilled my conclusion and focused on my ontological experience …

Counting Vessels, M. Siri Amrit Kroesen

Dissertations and Theses

The discussion and illustration of how paintings function as thresholds is examined in the thesis report and the thesis exhibition, Threshold implies the passage of how an artist approaches the processes of seeing. The painting is the entry point, a place of connection of artist and viewer, a record of human experience transforming individual, interdependent and universal knowledge. Issues of the human body's relationship to vessels, and the metaphor that is integrated in relationship of space and proximity is explored. The significance of symbols and signs and the interplay of historical and personal imagery are examined through the precepts of …

Material Origins, Carol E. Minchin

Dissertations and Theses

The intent of this thesis project was to use sculpture as a means of investigation for exploring the structural uses of Masonite, and to understand how those uses affect the nature of my work. The transformation of this material into form becomes the a process that is adjusted and refined until a formal solution is found. The tension, texture, scale, and form of the work contribute to a dialogue that results in sculptures that reference the human body and the growth of plants.

Songs And Stories That Only You Know: Multiplicity, Meaning, & The Metaphorical Bridge, Matthew Haggett

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis report will serve as a companion for the body of work that is the bulk of the thesis project. The theme of the thesis project is "the bridge". "The bridge" is a metaphor for meaning occurring through context. It is present on many levels. It will implicit in much of the discussion. I will include themes such as the play of differing scales, the ambiguous line between part and whole, and the reasons for the book format . Specific imagery that occurs repeatedly in the work, like architecture and knots, will be explained in terms of its sources, …

Dance Of Dreams, Michael Creger

Dissertations and Theses

It seems that the world does not exist in the way that we perceive it. Among the reasons for this are both the inaccuracy of the information gathered by our senses, and the cultural and linguistic structures through which we interpret this sensory information. This thesis and this group of sculptures, exhibited in the Autzen Gallery April 17 - May 10, 1995, are an attempt to address these issues and to point in a direction which may lead to greater understanding of the world and our place within it. Using primarily welded steel, and building from a foundation based on …

Alterations, Edith Kay Slusarenko

Dissertations and Theses

My work is not about making big declamatory statements. It's about looking around within my home environment and noticing something and thinking about it. At times (it) is noticed by me as I am passing by a storefront window or browsing through a second-hand store. I never have a clue to what I am looking for until I see it and buy it. Many times I will live with the object for years before deciding to use it as part of my art.

Yet when I decide to use the object(s) I find it important to understand how they have …

Connected Painted Rectangles Experiments In Quantitative Shape And Contrasting Elements, Ann Shiogi

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis consisted of a series of paintings in which the canvases were individually painted in a predetermined way, then arranged and assembled more spontaneously in a final wall construction. Narrow limitations, such as working with only horizontal and vertical compositions and contrasting colors were specified. By working within a method or procedure, and by remaining strict to these guidelines, the ideas inherent in the paintings emerged and were then promoted.

The dominant ideas that developed out of the process of making the paintings were the use of both "found" shapes--found in leftover lengths of support material--and "found" means of …

Painter's Wilderness, Eddie Peters

Dissertations and Theses

Painter's Wilderness is a transition between painting strictly from imagination to painting with the use of drawings and sketches to interpret and authenticate an observation. The transition became an exploration of value patterns, compositional shapes and color correspondence in building a technically successful painting while allowing the piece to have its own life.

Narrative Painting, Gina Strecker Wilson

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis is in the form of a commentary on the development of meaning and content within work done for the Department of Art Graduate Program.

Moving Pictures, Melissa Ann Mcclure

Dissertations and Theses

My thesis work includes 10 large drawings that explore the narrative qualities of line movement. I use line in these drawings as a recording device to document both the physical activity of the process and the personal experience that the lines represent. Through this work I attempt to develop a language of visual imagery that is autobiographical in nature. A system of personal symbols and recurring forms make up the structure of this visual vocabulary. Line movement and rhythm provides a sense of the dialog.

Reciprocating Transformations, Joyce A. Bryerton

Dissertations and Theses

The paintings in this thesis project began with a study of various representational images, both personal and symbolic. It included the exploration of assorted media and different styles of execution in a search for imagery to represent the scope of my life experience. This search involved a method of working that excluded preconceived images. The original images evolved into an abstract state which alludes directly to the figurative and organic nature of the earlier work.

An Exploration Of Some Aspects Of Mystery, Terry Foster Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis project consists of twenty-four paintings, drawings and lithographs dealing with three sub-themes of the larger subject of mystery: the mystery of existence; the mystery of religion; the mystery of the unknown. These themes are explored through manipulations of light, color, compositional arrangement and painting and drawing techniques.