Art and Design Commons^™

A Meditation In Three Parts, Brent Nakamoto

Graduate School of Art Theses

I’m interested in the way we read images—they way we see through an image’s surface in order to perceive its illusion, in the same way that we see through words in order to understand their meaning. I’m interested in this relationship, in both images and texts, between surface, illusion, and meaning. In Buddhist philosophy, the source of suffering is in our attachments to the self-as-image. The function of Zen meditation practice is to bring attention to this process of perception and, in doing so, to help see through the illusions of self-hood and ground our understanding in the reality of …

Monstrous Maternity: Folkloric Expressions Of The Feminine In Images Of The Ubume, Michaela Leah Prostak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubume is a ghost of Japanese folklore, once a living woman, who died during either pregnancy or childbirth. This thesis explores how the religious and secular developments of the ubume and related figures create a dichotomy of ideologies that both condemn and liberate women in their roles as mothers. Examples of literary and visual narratives of the ubume as well as the religious practices that were employed for maternity-related concerns are explored within their historical contexts in order to best understand what meaning they held for people at a given time and if that meaning has changed. These meanings …

The Empty Cup: Tea, Mythos, And Initiation Through Emergent Ritual, Katherine C. West

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

West, Katherine Church, M.A., Summer 2018

Master of Arts in Fine Arts, Integrated Arts and Education

Abstract

In our increasingly fast paced and busy world, the cultural value placed in ritual and ceremony has been lost. Yet, cultures for centuries have known the importance of such initiations to both usher us into and through important passages that mark a new time in our lives by deepening our awareness of our own lives and an understanding of the collective human experience.

This paper documents a two part project, one is the creation of a Gypsy Caravan, explored through the process of …