Art and Design Commons^™

My Promise To Nature., Kathleen Mcvea

LSU Master's Theses

My Promise to Nature is a body of work created to emphasize the importance of conserving natural habitats in Louisiana’s Tunica Hills. The decision to do Land Art and select the Tunica Hills as the subject did not come to me right away. Nature and family have been woven throughout my work throughout my time in the M.F.A. program.

This was not out of reach, and I was already extremely passionate about the subject. It might be a pain due to location, but my family owned 400 acres of property in the Tunica Hills with a cabin that they had …

Androgynous Figures On Etruscan Cista Handles From Praeneste, Melanie Naples

LSU Master's Theses

Muscular women and effeminate men adorn the lids of Etruscan Cistae found in Praeneste (modern Palestrina, 23 miles southeast of Rome, Italy). Cistae (Latin plural of cista) are storage containers used by the Etruscans for women’s beauty items. This thesis focuses on the androgynous, mostly nude, figures that serve as handles and are often displayed in pairs. These pairs frequently depict a man and a woman together and androgynous qualities are usually emphasized on the female figures. Discussions of the androgynous body in the ancient world have centered around Greece and Rome. Only recently (Sandhoff 2007, 2009, 2011), scholarship has …

Eve Leaving The Garden, Norma L. Colby Ms.

LSU Master's Theses

This body of work serves as an investigation into the concepts and burdens that, as a female millennial, impact me regularly. As the door to my education closes, I turn to a much bigger world with endless possibilities and responsibilities. With these overwhelming prospects, I find myself reflecting on how our society has progressed and worsened to arrive here today. I continue to question the passing down of systemic burdens, politics, and gender roles of women in the 21^st century. Eve Leaving the Garden is a collection of textile works, photographs, and sculptures that serve as an exploration of …

We Are All Connected, Behnoush Tavasolinia

LSU Master's Theses

Upon personal reflection, I have discovered that economic, cultural, and social issues have become very important in my life. As an Iranian graphic designer, I used current events and responded to Iranian stories to reflect that people’s problems anywhere in the world affect other people’s lives worldwide. My thesis investigation aims to reveal the global connection with commodities by focusing on Iran’s economic inflation to create a conceptual and visual representation of impacted consumables. Persian rugs and tile designs are the centers of the culture and symbols of the Iranian people. I used graphic design to illustrate tiles utilizing economic …

Winding Down River Road, Gillian Harper

LSU Master's Theses

As a mechanism to explore my temporary home in Louisiana, Winding Down River Road is a collection of artworks that integrates natural materials collected from landscapes in southern Louisiana with steel and petroleum-based products. My interest in researching environmental issues, ecology, and industry has shaped my vehicles for observation and how I generate data. Through a variety of methodologies, I am considering how climate change is forcing many of us to re-contextualize how our home can be affected by the very industries we rely on. Personal engagement with residents living in the dystopian atmosphere of southern Louisiana’s industrial corridor and …

Entities: A Field Of Imaginary Games, Thrasyvoulos Ioannis Kalaitzidis

LSU Master's Theses

With this body of work, I am looking for visual symbols that help communicate unuttered meanings through storytelling and stimulate an affectual response to the viewer. This exploration is presented in two different forms: a surreal sculptural installation and a board game. The installation consists of large-scale sculptures made from light and soft materials (polyurethane foam, plastic waste, paper) that are available to move inside the gallery, while the board game is presented as a set of 3D prints with instructions on how the participants can play it. The materials used in the installation suggest a way to transform waste …

Mrs. Florence Mante's Amazing Grace School, Daniel Keith Davis

LSU Master's Theses

Mrs. Florence Mante’s Amazing Grace School is the story of both Mama Florence and the children that she has dedicated her life to. Mrs. Florence Mante is the Ghanaian cofounder of the Amazing Grace Preparatory School. The West African school is committed to developing African leaders and ending the cycles of poverty in the village of Kodiekrom. My thesis focuses on using interview-driven artwork and collaborative storytelling to depict the unique challenges and triumphs of Mama Florence’s life in Ghana. Digital illustrations, a narration from Mama Florence, and music take the viewer on her deeply compelling journey, raising awareness for …

Buffaloed, Miles Kinney

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explain the methodologies of painting that I have adapted over my time as an MFA candidate at LSU. Through this examination, I elaborate on the inspirations for those methodologies and how they inform my studio practice. This thesis is broken down into separate essays that investigate those methodologies, artistic influences, chosen content, and an analysis of paintings selected for the final thesis exhibition.

Tiempo De Hibridos, Paul Acevedo Gomez

LSU Master's Theses

Tiempo De Hibridos is a body of work that celebrates the multiplicity of my shifting identity. It navigates back and forth between two different worlds, each packing different experiences that become a crossbreed or hybrid of information. Using historical references, pop culture, and personal experiences, I create a narrative story that maneuvers through familiar and foreign spaces.

The images suggest a celebration of cultural identity, vitality, but also psychological pain. I purposely combine objects that can be perceived as conflicting, altering their function to reference elements that are both playful and painful. The viewer should question the combination of objects …

Ceramics And Life In Tandem, Katharine Lee Robbins

LSU Master's Theses

From the ground up, my work emerges slowly. As each coil is added, I am conscious of how my body is interacting with the rich red clay body. Each time I press clay between my hands, the material reacts and changes. It gives me comfort to feel a tangible response as I push my body into the clay. The cyclical process of art making becomes my daily ritual. Each step is repeated over and over again until it becomes ingrained in my body’s existence.

As I add coils to my work, particularly the large sculptures, I continuously circle around each …

Growthlines, Alexandra Saunders

LSU Master's Theses

The work in Growthlines is a collection of ceramic objects that are characterized by floral pattern and their potential for use. I make ceramic work that is functional and designed to be in the home. I think that the way something looks is an integral part of function and I seek to make objects that function well. The surface of my pottery is rich with images of flowers and I hope that the surface both draws in the user and highlights flowers and how important they are for the preservation of the natural world. My work functions as a surrogate …

I'M Going Cycle Every Day, Lauren Nguyen

LSU Master's Theses

Many designers and scientists have been able to integrate design and science in their respective fields to create works that effectively inform their audiences of complicated subjects. Each of these individuals can express their creativity and viewpoint of the subject matter in a way that is interesting, visually appealing, and informative. Using the medium of graphic design, I created printed posters that represent the way I view the processes of the human body that are technical, yet also visually appealing.

My thesis exhibition walks my audience through the biological cycles that maintain the human body on an everyday basis from …

It's Not All Rainbows & Glitter, Jerry B. Lockaby

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this exhibition is to contextualize the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community by anchoring personal stories with collage and poetry to demonstrate the ongoing difficulties of growing up queer. Mixed media digitized collages have been created and paired with companion typographic treatments of poems and narratives from diverse points of view.

The word queer as a term to describe gay men, lesbians, and other non-conforming sexual identities, has evolved over the past 100 years. This evolution of the word parallels the struggles of LGBTQ+ people to achieve equal rights, marriage equality, protection in housing and employment, and an …

An Examination Of The Myriad Of Skills Properties Artisans Utilize And How They Are Attained, Crystal L. Hayner

LSU Master's Theses

This study is intended to provide resources for those looking at becoming a prop artisan in the theatre industry. It is meant to provide aspiring artists with everything they need on their journey to becoming a competitive hire in the field, to aid in increasing one’s chances of finding work in the theatre industry, and to have a successful career as a prop artisan by compiling the multiple types of skills that prop artisans use and how they attain those different types of skills. The central research question of this study examines the myriad of skills prop artisans utilize and …

Offerings, Diana C. Patin

LSU Master's Theses

These photographs and writing are a set of offerings, collected as part of an intensive examination of myself and my contentious relationship with self-image. I first established which traits in my personality represent me best. I landed on my fatness, my queerness, my southernness, and my penchant for caring. Then I took a deep dive into each of those four themes with the objective of uncovering both the areas of exaltation and spaces of hurt within them. The images that result are both confrontational and gentle. It is my hope that the uncompromising honesty within these offerings communicates that while …

In-Between The Wind, Victoria L. Vontz

LSU Master's Theses

In-between the Wind is a compilation of poems, short stories, theories, photographs, and drawings that reveal my relationship and connection with nature. Through prose, I expose and question my place in the world, how I see it and how I am connected to it, while photographic images and drawings leave space for thoughtful and reflective meditation. The work draws upon memories, discusses theories of connection, and aims to record ephemeral moments that often seem to be too easily forgotten.

Sulfur And Sage, John Swincinski

LSU Master's Theses

Sulfur and Sage is a body of abstract paintings created out of memories of time spent immersed in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains and the Yellowstone Caldera during the summer of 2020. The paintings reflect specific places, experiences, and insights, which occurred as I sought solitude by returning to the one place where I feel most at peace with the universe – the woods.

Each painting is augmented by a written vignette, describing the occurrence it is based on. Should the viewer choose to include these short stories as they encounter the artwork, they provide the jumping off point …

The Undiscovered Country, Luke A. Atkinson

LSU Master's Theses

The Undiscovered Country is a compendium of paintings, prose, and poetry that defines the place of creation. This work is a response to life as I find it, in as honest and truthful a way as my ability allows. Sergei Prokofiev said, “The more the sea rages, the more precious a hard rock among the waves becomes.” My paintings are solid rocks that I cling to. Hopefully, someone else can too.

Remembrance, Nhu Ngoc Quynh Dao

LSU Master's Theses

The artwork in the collection, “Remembrance,” is a collection of three-dimensional paper toys inspired by the culture of Dong Son civilization. The study was intended as an investigation into a mysterious, once-lost kingdom that flourished in the northern delta region of Vietnam. The designs and art motifs found on bronze artifacts from Dong Son have been scrutinized, then compared with stories in Vietnamese legends to decipher their hidden message and symbolism. I collected and translated the design motifs digitally as part of the creative process before analyzing their philosophies and intentions to not only introduce the culture but also accurately …

The Stylistic Development Of Jean Despujols (1886-1965), Kelly M. Ward

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the life and most extant works by Jean Despujols. The French and later naturalized American painter, writer, poet, philosopher, deep-thinker, and mystic was best known for his Neoclassical and academic style. This thesis briefly discusses the artist’s beginnings as a young painter at the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux and in Paris, his sketches in the trenches of the First World War, his time at the Villa Medicis after winning the distinguished Rome Prize, and his paintings and thoughts as a philosopher and political writer throughout his life. An outstanding …

Power Structures, Michael A. Whitehead

LSU Master's Theses

Power Structures is a series of drawings and prints inspired by my fixation with the intricate utilitarian architecture and dystopian atmosphere of Louisiana’s petrochemical corridor. The architectural forms within this body of work juxtapose components of disparate industrial sites to form ruinous monuments to power and progress. The Power Structures are composites of photographs, technical drawings, and memories I have made in my time studying Cancer Alley. I introduce machined aircraft components, gate valves, and various fasteners into the architectural forms of petrochemical plants as elements of misdirection, blurring the line between reality and memory, fact and fabrication.

[Thoughts On] The Painter & The Act Of Painting, Samantha Rosado

LSU Master's Theses

In the satirical manifesto that accompanies my work, humor, and sarcasm play an important role in understanding the narrator’s tone. The information included is both factual and imagined, pulled from stories and experiences of a group of painters. My hope is to help aspiring painters develop their own rules and philosophies based on what they learn through the canon of art history. As a writer I aim to motivate those who feel under-represented in the world of fine art and craft to reject feelings of inadequacy. As an artist I make with the intention of being vulnerable and honest.

Neverending Loop, Joseph Nivens

LSU Master's Theses

The intention of NeverEnding Loop is to depict the trauma of queer adolescense contrasted by the shadow of the closet that follows LGBTQ+ children into adulthood. The reality for queer people is that coming out is a process that never ends and a task that can create a lonely existence for those that are different from the norm. The artwork aims to convey the very real and confusing struggle of finding your identity as a queer person existing in a heterosexual world.

NeverEnding Loop explores loops and cycles in short animations, sculptural forms with repeating imagery, and mixed media forms …

Body/Mind:Matter, Mary Ellen Ratcliff

LSU Master's Theses

Body/Mind:Matter presents the unfiltered experiences of living in a period of momentous instability. Three life-sized figurative sculptures stage my emotional journey towards mindfulness as a direct response to the pandemic and my growing concern for our collective future. A winding network of crocheted yarns and growing vines interweave the troubled figures to signify our complex dependencies upon one another and our environment.

The condition of the encumbered bodies is a result of the worried mind. Revitalized matter proposes reconciliation by introducing a sense of hope; decaying surfaces reveal new life; fused wires hold up under immense pressure; and soft woven …

Hello Again يا اهلا A Study Of Grief, Diana Abouchacra

LSU Master's Theses

Grief is an unwanted visitor who we all come to know throughout our lifetime. Although every person reacts differently to bereavement of a loved one, almost always the lost other becomes etched into our being for the remainder of our lives (McClocklin & Lengelle, 2017). In today’s society, we are encouraged to say “Good-bye”, but what if instead, we allow ourselves to keep those who have passed on close to our hearts and say hello again? Hello Again يا اهلا is a body of work that explores my experience with grief. The artworks made for this exhibition investigate my process …

Cultural Heritage And User Interface Design, Narges Tavakoli

LSU Master's Theses

This study centers around localizing the user interface and experience design of digital products considering the culture of the audience and their visual heritage. Even though it seems the internet has made the distance between developing and advanced countries less than before, there are still fundamental differences between people’s beliefs and expectations. As a graphic designer who is based in The United States and is from Iran, I noticed the digital products (web, mobile applications) produced in Iran disregard the Iranian’s specific needs and emulate western patterns. So, I researched the dissimilarities between the two countries by using Greet Hofstede’s …

Future Colors, Jessi Maddocks

LSU Master's Theses

Future Colors considers everyday personal stories and those held in functional objects as they leave the studio to find new homes. This work considers daily transitional moments, everyday occurrences that present an opportunity to witness shifts from one state of being to another. Utilizing digital fabrication tools and handworking techniques, Future Colors brings a synthesis of design methods to create this exhibition of functional vessels and porcelain tiles.

Small Revelations, Christopher Burns

LSU Master's Theses

Small Revelations is a photographic project that recontextualizes images of historic churches found in areas of the United States that have a colonial history. The images in this series subvert and critique the symbolic importance of these structures by interrupting the inherent power found in their architecture. They achieve this subversion through the careful use of color, composition and photographic imperfection. This project builds its argument with visual decisions inspired and validated by work within the art historical canon. Small Revelations is a thesis project produced as the final requirement of Louisiana State University’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio …

In The Garden, Clare Samani

LSU Master's Theses

My work has focused largely on identity and self-expression, primarily through clothing, pattern, and color as a symbolic content. Having heavily investigated historical costume and clothing from various periods, my attention is drawn to the highly sculptural and ornamented garments of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the rococo, and the baroque. In these colorful and puffed garments, I am attracted to the similarities that I see in nature. How we adorn ourselves mimics various flowers, plants and animals in the pursuit of desire and procreation. Focusing on fabric manipulation, printmaking and sculpture, In the Garden coalesces into ambiguous sculptures that …

Meanwhile, Samantha Combs

LSU Master's Theses

Meanwhile is an installation that explores the psychological and physical impact emotions have on individuals and the experienced struggle of restraining and letting go of them. Through the influence of Abstract Expressionism and use of metaphorical materials like soap and self-help book paper, each artwork embodies the intensity of this emotional struggle. Meanwhile represents and exposes the grotesque beauty of peoples’ psychic experience.