Art and Design Commons^™

The Landscape Does Not Care It Is A Landscape: A Utopian Pessimist Journey In Kentucky., Shachaf Polakow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

These thesis and exhibition, invite the viewers to travel through different places in Central and Eastern Kentucky. The region’s landscape, like many other American landscapes, is often known to the public through the settler colonial lens—a lens that ignores Indigenous peoples’ history in the region. The work in the exhibition is a response to landscape art's history and its complicity with American settler colonialism- art that was recruited to create a new identity for the settlers and for the country from the beginning of the American Colonial Project. Landscape art was a crucial part of this effort, presenting the land …

Plausible Expositions With Possible Expeditions, Nikolaus D. James

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Influenced by video games and cinema, in this body of work, Plausible Expositions with Possible Expeditions, I use objects to create scenarios that suggest a narrative. The scenes are then photographed and displayed through cathode-ray tube televisions and viewers use their own knowledge and ideas about the objects to create that narrative. Each of these objects has is own data set, and the most common have a universal data set—information surrounding the object that is widely recognized, much like how a crowbar is commonly associated with crime. Similar to playing a video game, an algorithm is used when viewing my …

Blaze, Meg Roussos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses her work in “BLAZE,” a Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibit held at the Tipton Gallery from September 16th through October 4th, 2019. The exhibition consists of 11 archival inkjet prints, two photographic artist books, a nine-channel video installation, representing the artist’s exploration of how to experience the landscape. Using non-traditional approaches to photographic imagery, experimental exhibition layout, the artist forms questions around themes of walking and landscape. The artist investigates sculptural land art installations represented through photographic documentation. A catalog of the exhibit is included at the end of this thesis.

Roussos examines formal and conceptual …

Hearing Through Walls, Bradley Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses work in “Hearing Through Walls”, a Masters of Fine Arts thesis exhibit held at downtown Tipton Gallery from February 19th through March 2nd, 2018. The exhibition consists of 15 archival inkjet prints and one two-channel video piece, representing the artists three-year exploration into narrative forms in image making. Using non-traditional approaches to photographic portraiture and experimental exhibition layout, the artist forms questions around themes of domesticity, lost youth, and American masculinity. Among these themes is an investigation into photographic issues, including the cultural role that photographs play in perpetuating, miming, and disrupting the facades of everyday life. …

Descendants, Katie J. Sheffield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses the photographs in Descendants, her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition which was held at Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, Tennessee from October 31, 2016 through November 23, 2016. The exhibit consisted of 19 large format color photographs. This body of work visually represents the artistʼs interest in those who participate in Civil War re-enactments.

The historical and contemporary influences discussed are in accordance to Sheffieldʼs photographs. Historical influences include Matthew Brady, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Walker Evans, and Helen Levitt, as well as those of contemporary artists; Martin Parr, Stacy Kranitz, and Anderson Scott.

Doubting Thomas: The Testaments, Ivan Riascos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper will discuss the creation of my artwork, which has been inspired by my experiences and understandings of Catholicism and its icons. I will consider how iconography works in art, its influence, and how and why I have created this artwork dealing with my beliefs. I will also refer to the works of contemporary artists Duane Michals and Michael Wesely to help explain my exhibition, which I have titled "Doubting Thomas: The Testaments."

Projected Surfaces, Jason Flynn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I will address the philosophies of Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and Thomas Ruff by considering the object, materials and processes of photography as my primary motivator to create art. I will examine the contrast between photographic imagery, as an illusion of the past, and sculpture, as a physical manifestation of the present, when creating works that ask, "What else can photography be?"

Boundaries., Elizabeth Trabue Gorham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses the work in Boundaries, her Master of Fine Arts exhibition on display at Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee from October 31 to November 4, 2011. The exhibition consists of 20 black and white photographs, the main subject of which is the photographer's son. The photographs and supporting thesis explore the idea of boundaries real and implied, and how confinement can prompt a variety of behaviors. Topics include the process and evolution of the work and the artists who have influenced it, the importance of light and the challenge of photographing family. Included is …

Visual Stamp, Jeanay Fullerton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I create images in a painterly manner illustrating a visual dialog, which suggests simultaneous moments, yet are actually a separated collision of moments and time. I have stretched these ideas from a slowed manipulation of time, to a calculated capture of segmented moments. My work undermines the importance of the decisive moment theory. This theory was the catalyst for my new series, VISUAL STAMP. "The decisive moment, it is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression." - …

Divining The Divine: Pop Mythology And Its Worth, James Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis compares classic mythology of cultures like ancient Greece to the mythology that has risen from the popular culture of contemporary western civilizations like America. While there are some differences, the two use the same archetypes that humanity has used for generations. In my work I use sculpture and photography to show their similarities and differences in form and story.

Place, Space, And Form Captured Through Photographic Meditation, Sarah Stead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by Buddhist philosophy, the photographic series Architectural Zen attempts to beautify banal and pragmatic architecture through limiting and preexisting artificial light conditions. The selective illumination of artificial light eliminates the non-essential details and enhances the pure forms and saturated color presented by the camera lens. This encourages the photographer and the viewer to enter a state of meditation. The resulting process is similar to a Zen approach to image making. The ancient Zen artist's compositions are strengthened by a meditation on form and subsequent elimination of the non-essential elements of the subject. Through embracing this Zen mentality and mindfulness,aspects …

Deep Within, Caberbe Joseph

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a contemporary photographer, I focus most on light and color to bring out the uniqueness of my images. Photography is about lighting and I manipulate lights to raise questions in my viewers. Manipulating light is my way of being curious about how it may change mood physically and emotionally. Inspired by classical paintings, I have developed a body of photographs that can be admired by anyone. Although the main focus of my work is light and color, this body of work is also intended to empower those with little confidence in themselves and those who have been rejected, abused, …

Dimensions Of Identity, Alice Kramer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Imagination and fantasy environments created by writers and artists have always drawn people into their worlds. Advances in technology have blurred the lines between reality and imagination. My interest has always been to question the validity of these worlds and their cultures and to transcend the evolving virtual dimension by fusing it with what we perceive to be reality.

Perceptions Of Cuteness And Beauty, Danielle Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Upbringing and psychological make-up inspire individual norms for beauty and cuteness. The mannerist approach in my work is a product of the figural liberties found in cartooning, illustration and art history. By altering facial and bodily features, I relate the proportions of an infant to cuteness and innocence. However, I tailor the photographs to empower the subjects all the while mirroring trends in contemporary pop culture. I'm interested in themes of everyday life, vitality and emotion placed in obscure, imaginary or exaggerated venues. I fictionalize subjects of my reality to compel viewers to identify with and fancy emotions, circumstances, moods …

Many Telling Moments:The Essence Of Fragmented Image Culture, Bonnie Ebner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My purpose in entering the UCF MFA program was to further explore and develop my passion for photography. During my time in the program, I developed my methodology--from having the traditional photography paradigm ingrained in my mind (and wanting to fit into it) to accepting and valuing my own unique process. I construct installations using diverse imagery and non-traditional presentation. In my installations, one may witness a reflection of the contemporary pace of image perception--fragmented, complex, abundant, and disordered. Together, images and their arrangements are used to create a unified piece that satisfies a new system within apparent disorder. The …

Without A Camera, Brian Kulbaba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The method for creating my art is a matter of experimental process, manipulation of photographic elements, and time spent. I am a photographer in a digital age that does not use a camera. My moment of creativity occurs without the snap of a shutter, but relies on my understanding and control of the chemical components of photography. My work deconstructs the notion of duplication commonly found in photography. The procedure can be repeated but the results are variable. The process of creating my work often results in a multitude of prints, but the pieces that I select as art capture …

Tolerance: Challenge, Perception, And Social Stigmas Defined Through Visual Communications., Ursula Moore Bryant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My explorations and journey through life have led me to discover a connection in my work and responsibility as a visual communicator. My objective of communicating challenge, perception, and social stigmas through informed stories of individual lives is to provoke questions and spark moments of awareness in viewers. With this supporting manuscript, I hope to inform about my motivations through time including my personal, artistic, and historical influences. I will define graphic design as a fine art through the evaluation of artistic movements. I also intend to discuss design as a language and build a case for social awareness. Evaluating …

Series Of Disintegrated Memories, Simona Balas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Being absent from things or places for a period of time, we try to connect by revisiting our memories. There is always a vivid remembrance of certain objects or surroundings, but when we try to connect them, the truth in our mind deviates from the reality. The disintegration of the memories and the morphing of our imagination create a different reality in our minds that we begin to believe, considering that the truth becomes almost completely abstracted and obscured as time passes.

Truths, Realities And The Easily Transmitted Image, Elizabeth Walton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By the documenting and examining things that are often overlooked in everyday life, I try to find the beauty of these objects, of people, their lives and their homes. I am interested in the current technology and the influence of the easily transmitted image. What is the truth and reality of the images shared by the current youth culture because of the use of camera phones, digital image takers, and the constant image transmissions through online social networking venues such as My Space and FaceBook? The current digital image is no longer a precious object as it was in the …

Epoch Locale., Jonathan Hounshell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My explorations around the world are intertwined with my excavation of the layers of art history. My discoveries about the traditions of the printmaking medium are fused with the heritage I inherit as an artist. This is what is put into my current body of work. With this supporting manuscript, I hope to inform about the technical aspects of my unique aesthetic and to entertain with the ideas behind my current body of work by making connections between my personal visions and experiences and the significance of the artists and craftsman who inspire me.