Art and Design Commons^™

America, Dreaming., Sarah Meftah

Masters Theses

There is a version

of America

that exists

only in dreams,

a kind of folklore,

shrouded in images,

technicolor interiors,

wrapped in plastic,

ghosts of recent past

to haunt and guide;

a constant reminder.

Wishful thinking

a constructed imaginary,

one I can hold in my hand.

Popular culture and spectacle, America and the domestic ideal, capitalism and the collective unconscious of a national identity. As an artist, I am interested in the myriad images that manifest for a viewer when they think of the spectacle of American pop culture, its domestic archetypes, and the material worship it revolves around. My …

Merino Wool In America: Migration, Economic Desire And Patriotism, Una R. Winn

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts and The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Home Suite Home: An Analysis Of Comfort In Americana And Motel Culture, Jodi Kolpakov

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay provides a critical look at the motel, investigating it as a souvenir, exploring its nostalgic phenomenon, and questioning its complexity of comfort. We begin by looking at the evolution of the motel and how its strange stereo- type came to be. I dissect the terms “shady” and “sketchy” as both a psychological and illustrated representation of the motel while closely reading how these terms appear in other forms of media, such as Bates Motel and Bad Times at the El Royale. Through exploring nostalgic Americana, I investigate how motels connect us from the past to the pres- …

Hero Baby, Elizabeth J. Harney

Theses and Dissertations

With fiction and theory, the following pages give context to my most recent body of work called Hero Baby. The work in Hero Baby embodies an aesthetic of cuteness, as highlights the relationship between: aggression and protection, power and submission, war and commodity, nationalism and desire for love.

Volume 83, Issue 1: Full Issue, Manuscripts Staff

Manuscripts

Full issue of 2019 Manuscripts.

American Idyll: A Place To Call Home, Bowen Walsh Fernie

Senior Projects Spring 2018

I was raised in Italy from the age of five and when I returned to the United States at eighteen, I was surprised by the way I was affected by the landscape I had never known or explored. I found myself drawn to American culture as it is stereotypically represented in movies and TV - the quaint houses, the schools with cheerleaders and locker rooms, the drive-in movie theaters – and began to examine how those stereotypes are reflected in the real world. From this initial interest I began exploring the American space that I envisioned myself inhabiting throughout my …

The [E]Motionless Body No Longer: Tracing The Historical Intersections Of Mental Illness And Movement In The American Asylum, Holly Adele Herzfeld

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Art For The People: Wpa Prints And Textiles From The Permanent Collection, Antje K. Gamble, T. Michael Martin

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

As the first major, nationalized support system for artistic production in the United States, the New Deal’s Federal Art Project (F.A.P.) strove to create a holistic vision of art for the American people. Debates among art historians and political pundits alike pointed to the perceived-lack of a truly-American modern art. Cultural critic Lewis Mumford articulated that, opposed to European Modernism, “[w]hat American taste recognizes [is] that there is more aesthetic promise in a McAn shoe store front, or in a Blue Kitchen sandwich palace than there is in the most sumptuous showroom of antiques…” In accordance, the F.A.P. supported artists’ …

Early American Bookbinding In Brigham Young University's Special Collections, Kylie Ladd

Student Works

Bookbinding is a tradition that began in America before America itself. The earliest identified binder was John Ratcliff, who came to Boston from England about 1662. In fact, bookbinding preceded printing in America – the first (anonymous) binding was completed in 1636, and the first printer didn't appear until two years after that. Save for a few major figures, most binders and the bindings they completed remain anonymous, identifiable only by the style of decoration. In this paper will attempt to study the characteristics and traditions of early 19th century publishers and book binding through a case study of a …