Art and Design Commons^™

Texas Gothic, Taryn Uribe Turner

Art Theses and Dissertations

The emotional and the ecological combine to create my body of work titled, “Texas Gothic.” My thesis tells the stories of my oil paintings created through personal connections to a variety of landscapes, animals and experiences that share the setting of Texas.

Desire and regret take shape as animals and figures not fully formed or real. Unreliable narratives of the past are entangled with present tensions to create a painting that haunts and stalks.

And yet, there is hope!

Through nostalgia and sweetness and burdens, my paintings confront a shrouded future. The contradictions of time passing are explored in my …

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

Fragmented Bodies, Lauren Careese Alexander

Art Theses and Dissertations

Through Memory Webs and fragmented ceramic vessels, I express what it feels like to grow up living in a biracial body. I utilize mixed media to emulate a mixed-race experience. My Memory Webs are fashioned by painting on scraps of canvas and attaching them with crocheted wire and ribbon to speak to how my memory has impacted my identity. My fragmented ceramic vessels are cut up and stitched back together to represent disjointedness and un-belonging. All of my work is contextualized through the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and what the Monster may represent for people of color. I also …

Jurgen Comics Contest Newspaper And Artwork - Fall 2023, Julia Martinez

Jurgen Banned Art Comics Contest

Digital edition of the Jurgen Comics Contest broadsheet newspaper celebrating the Fall 2023 Contest winners. The newspaper design and supplemental artwork were created by contest student editor Julia Martinez. Supplemental promotional materials include a poster for an online information session.

The Fall 2023 Jurgen Comics Contest invited VCU students to explore a specific historical incident of censorship or suppression of visual art, books, music, film or performance.

Standing On The Edge Of A Dream, Parto Ahmadpour Mobarake

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Standing On the Edge of a Dream delves into the intricate tapestry of lived experiences shaped by relocation, emphasizing the nuanced space that exists between reality and imagination. As an individual who has undergone the transformative journey of immigration, I recognize that the concept of relocation is like standing on the edge of a dream. This notion becomes a living structure, intricately woven with threads from our past, present, and future. My artistic exploration extends beyond my artworks, yet it remains deeply rooted in my personal narratives. The artworks in the exhibition continue to draw inspiration from personal memories and …

On The Black Book As Durational: Noah Purifoy’S Desert Library, Paul Benzon

Criticism

What happens to a library in the desert? How does it transform as a material object under these pressures, and what might these transformations tell us about its capacity for bearing and registering history? This article considers these questions in relation to the artist Noah Purifoy’s found-object installation Library of Congress, one of approximately thirty works that make up the ten-acre space of the Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art in Joshua Tree, California. The museum consists of a wide range of found-object sculptures, all deeply enmeshed within the space of the desert. The museum, and indeed Purifoy’s …

The Artistry Of Mediation: A Look At Mediation’S Effectiveness For Resolving Cross-Cultural Disputes Through The Leonardo Da Vinci Conflict Between France’S Louvre Museum And Italy’S Uffizi Gallery, Sophia D. Casetta

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

Art is powerful, as it symbolizes the history and identity of the country that claims it. However, through timely transitions, such as trade and wars, the ownership of meaningful artworks blurs, with museums fighting to claim their heritage to put on honorable display for their people. Mediation can be a peaceful means to resolve art ownership disputes, as it accounts for respecting the individual cultures of the countries represented in the dispute. Using the key medication traits described within this essay, a prepared mediator involved in such a cross-cultural conflict should be able to help resolve the issue at hand. …

The Hospitality Of Doubt, Ian Grieve

Art Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the last two years of research toward a Master of Fine Art in Studio Art. I mainly address my painting practice, but while in the program, I have worked in collage, ceramics, intaglio printmaking, and sculpture. My paintings are thick, multilayered, and often contain ambiguous narratives. The pictures develop through engagement, openness, and response within the work. I seek and embrace connection with viewers of the work. The spectator ‘completes’ the art and enhances or alters the artworks meaning by observing it and applying their individual perspectives. I seek to incorporate a sense of nostalgia and familiarity. …

“You Will Never Touch My Roots”, Zari Apodaca

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Zari Apodaca ’23
Major: Studio Art
Faculty Mentor: Professor Judd Schiffman, Art and Art History

An Exhibition of ceramic objects reflecting on genocidal trauma and cultural bereavement in Armenian culture. Through her art, Zari asks questions about the intergenerational effects of exile and persecution. In Zari’s words: “Through multiple ceramic copies of face plaques and head sculptures, I work to understand who I see myself to be, despite feeling so disconnected. I communicate my inner thoughts concerning identity and society through text carved into clay and broken up pieces of faces to better understand the missing gaps in myself.”

Artistic Representation And Self Esteem, Brianna Davis

Honors College Theses

Dependent upon the constructs of the perception of self and the viewpoint of others, humans base the value of their self esteem on outer perspectives rather than internal ones. For this thesis in particular, the outer perspective to be examined is representation in the field of the arts. This thesis project explores the process of self esteem, artistic representation in the arts, how one affects the other, a history of the correlation between the two, and ways to inform and educate the masses with the tools necessary to advance representation in the arts thus raising the self esteem of its …

Critical Exhibition Methods In Museums, Jaimie Davis Ms

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Art and anthropology are intimately intertwined as art is an extension of culture which falls under the purview of anthropology. Utilizing interdisciplinary methodology that incorporates both anthropology's considerations for culture and art's consideration of aesthetic creates the best possible methodology for exhibition in museums. Art museums have enough aesthetic and could benefit from the considerations an anthropology's school of thought.

Sites Of Cultural Production In Response To Mass Extinction, Stephanie S. Turner, Evamarie Lindahl, Tara Nicholson

Animal Studies Journal

This conversation, mediated by Tara Nicholson, considers Stephanie Turner and EvaMarie Lindahl’s research in cultural representations of extinction and investigations of more-than-human forms of storytelling through an art historical lens. In response to Lori Gruen’s classification, extinction is a distinctive loss of ‘animal cultures’. It is more than biodiversity destruction or a static inventory of a species’ death. Nonhuman ways of building bonds, reproducing, teaching offspring, constructing homes and mourning the dead, are all systems of knowledge lost in extinction (Gruen et al. 2017). This conversation offers compassionate ways of bearing witness to species destruction and a space for empathy …

Scenes Of Screens, Scenes Of Sodomy: The Role And Impact Of The Folding Screen In Eighteenth-Century French Erotic Novels, Katherine Delony

English Undergraduate Distinction Projects

This project provides an analysis of the folding screen as a literary agent and signifier which reflects the cultural happenings of the eighteenth century with specific emphasis on new ideas about queerness which arise in France during the eighteenth century. I will focus primarily on the Marquis de Sade’s (1740-1814) Justine, ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (1791) (as well as La Nouvelle Justine, 1797) and John Cleland’s (1709-1789) Le Fille de Joie (translated 1751) with reference to Jean-Louis Fougeret de Monbron’s (1706-1760) Margot la Ravaudeuse (1753), Sade’s Philosophie dans le boudoir Jean-François de Bastide’s (1724-1798) La …

The Nazi Aesthetic: Nuance And Contradiction In Systematic Art Theft And Collection Efforts, Katharine J. Namon

Senior Theses and Projects

Nazi art collecting and looting was a strong and persistent undercurrent throughout World War II. The public and private practices of Nazi officials reveal both their aesthetic tastes and obsession with establishing themselves as highly educated, cultured patrons of the arts. Although the party’s artistic preferences are hard to define, it is evident that their stance on what constituted fine art and culture was entirely illogical, inconsistent, and incongruent. By examining their motives for acquiring such an astounding amount of art, the artistic tastes of individual Nazi officials, and the public exhibitions they held to advertise their values, one can …

It Won’T Be Easy, Allison Arkush

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Interdisciplinary artist Allison Arkush engages a wide range of materials, modalities, and research in her practice. In It Won’t Be Easy, Arkush places and piles her multimedia sculptures throughout the gallery to create installations that overlap ­with her writing and poetry, sometimes layering in (or extending out to) audio and video components. This approach facilitates the probing exploration of prevailing value systems through a flattening of hierarchies among and between humans, the other-than-human, and the inanimate—though no less lively. Her work meditates on and ‘vendiagrams’ things forsaken and sacred, the traumatic and nostalgic. The exhibition title acknowledges that the …

Worcester Public Art For Esl Students, Eleanor Rueffer

Visual and Performing Arts

Funded by the Steinbrecher Fellowship, "Worcester Public Art for ESL Students" are original teaching materials (a 28-page booklet and worksheets) that utilize simple English to introduce some of Worcester's iconic public artworks. While the intended audience is English learners, the focus is on the content and is encouraged for use by anyone looking to enjoy and learn about Worcester history and art.

The booklet includes descriptions and histories of six Worcester artworks (Burnside Fountain, Soldiers' Monument, Major Taylor Statue, Mechanics Hall Mural, Rogers-Kennedy Memorial, and Chamberlain Fountain) with technical terms or difficult words bolded and explained in a glossary.

Eleanor …

History Of Fashion Installations As Art Exhibitions And Their Impact On The Public’S Perspective On Culture And Community, Arabella Riley

MA Theses

The current study targeted the problem of the relationship among the notions of fashion, art, and culture. The study aimed to determine the potential role of fashion brands and artists in the transformation of modern culture. Additionally, the study sought to analyze the forms of collaboration between fashion and arts, and their commercial and conceptual value. As to the research methods, qualitative secondary data review using thematic analysis methodology was utilized. The research findings included the recognition of the significant role of modern fashion and arts in the transformation of the public culture. Furthermore, it was revealed that different formats …

Painting Outside Of The Lines: How Race Assignment Can Be Rethought Through Art, Giovanni Mella-Velazquez

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

For centuries art has been used to make us think about our own human experiences. Unfortunately, works usually reflect the era which they were painted in; this has led to various artists showing, maintaining, and therefore reinforcing racist thoughts in our cultures. Art can be used to create a new narrative for our race assignments and their meanings. The idea of loving one's roots has been prevalent in many cultures, but in art form a disconnect between history and the everyday experience can arise which could miss the mark in helping us redefine our own race. Therefore, artwork which empowers …

2+2=Cake: A Book Of Conversations About Possibilities In Business And Art, Elizabeth Ann Alspach

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

2+2=CAKE is a toolkit for people interested in creating their own economic container to support their livelihood. Calling upon the entrepreneurial experience of artists and creatives who founded or run organizations, the book and accompanying workbook and motivational posters serve as an incubator, buoy, and affirming resource for those looking to build the economic container in which they make their livelihood.

In-Between Spaces, Trinity Kai

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In-between Spaces is a paper based in personal narrative that uses Critical Race Theory and art to analyze the history of photography and systems of discrimination facilitated by hegemonic culture. Body is at the center as a symbol of the physical and psychological impacts systemic inequalities have on people that are classified as other and how one can be absent and present in institutional and public spaces.

Optimistic And A Little Flawed, Christian Schultz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The accompanying exhibition to this paper, Optimistic and Flawed is a body of drawings and objects that explores the liminal space between playful and intended actions. Inspired by the landscape of the yard and the actions that take place within, the goalless play of a child and the laborious maintenance of an adult. The value of play exists within labor and labor exists within play. The drawings observe this through the theoretical framework of telic and paratelic motivational states as they relate to drawing. Abstracted yards and landscapes provide a space for the labor of the hand. A history of …

Race To The Finish: An Obstacle Course With A Biological Twist, Kayli Fagan

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Business Management and Studio Art
Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art and Art History

The Button Bash: A Minigame, Miranda Balossi Ventre

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art and Art History

Consumer, Catherine Romsey

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art and Art History

The Last Prisoners Of War: How Nazi-Looted Art Is Displayed In U.S. Museums, Monica May Thompson

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

How art museums approach NLA is important today because much of the public relies on museums for their education. NLA cases are especially controversial because they are not only legal battles, but ethical ones so museums have to be extra careful approaching them. Even if the museum has won the legal battle the public may not see them as winning the ethical one therefore they might want to avoid displaying this information to the public. However, as we can see with the previous websites, it actually looks worse for museums not to be open and honest about their NLA pieces …

Contemporary Handicraft, Textile Art, And Feminist Social Critique, Kaitlynn Blow

Honors Theses

My thesis looks at the work of female contemporary artists who use what has historically been considered “women’s craft” such as embroidery, knitting, stitching and other various textile arts. Since the Women’s Art Movement of the 1970s, women have used these creative outlets to express discontent and injustice in their lives revolving around gender and identity. In my research, three main themes emerged as addressed in each chapter. The first theme addresses the topic of domesticity and memory including unseen female labor, such as domestic chores and motherhood, and how fabric holds memories. Chapter two covers gender politics- specifically the …

Requisitioned: American War Art Of The Second World War, Spenser Carroll-Johnson

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The United States requisitioned artists to assist with military objectives and servicemen requisitioned art as a form of rhetoric. This research reexamines the role of “official artists” and thereby extends its definition to include the multitude of art they produced during the Second World War. The underpinnings of this thesis reside during the economic crises of the 1930s that brought about American emergency relief initiatives for artists under the direction of Holger Cahill and, by extension, Edward Bruce. For the first time in history, the American public engaged with state-sponsored art. Due to a symbiotic relationship that formed between the …

Paper Making: Finding The Scaffold, Tino Ward

Art Theses and Dissertations

Paper making combines my proclivity towards using found materials and the need to produce my own painting supports. This first part of this thesis chronicles the reasons I arrived at paper as my chosen medium, the objects I began to produce, and the projects that stemmed from those early experiments. The second half outlines my final work, a 1:4 scale model in paper of the 1966 exhibition 10, held in New York at the Dwan Gallery, which showcased the early minimal works of Carl Andre, Jo Baer, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, Ad Reinhardt, …

Digital Landscapes Of The Mind, Ashley M. Dicaro

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Health Policy and Management
Minor: Italian and Studio Art
Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art & Art History

For my independent study, I used Photoshop extensively. The software allows me to use digital imagery to maintain a specific color palette that translates to the time of day. This color theme is extracted from my personal photographs of favored landscapes, after which I build in layers to create whimsical landscapes. They are whimsical for their non-uniform distortions of perspective and viewing angle, a combination that is amplified by the painterly application of color. Technology allows me to paint, cut, collage …

Mid 20th Century America Through The Words And Lens Of Allen Ginsberg, Lily M. Conover

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Art History and American Studies
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Deborah Johnson, Art and Art History

Allen Ginsberg began producing provocative poetry in 1955 when he first devoted his life to writing. There was even a court case in 1957 to decide whether or not his most famous piece, Howl, should be banned for its content. All of this press made Ginsberg a famous poet; however, he also had what he called an “amateur hobby,” his photography.

In the same way he wrote, Ginsberg photographed the world around him: members of the Beat Movement, his friends, lovers, etc. Most of the …