Ceramic Arts Commons^™

Castles In The Sky, Iva Milovanović

Masters Theses

I was born and raised in the city of Belgrade. From the 1950’s till the beginning of 1990’s it was the capital city of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. From the 1950’s until the 1980’s Yugoslavia experienced a financial and thus architectural boom. The president Josip Broz Tito financed construction of WWII Memorials to demonstrate the strength of the socialist republic throughout the Balkans. These giant memorials, along with most of the architecture of Belgrade from that time, were built in brutalist style. Brutalism signified power, progress and a forward moving country.

However, when I was born a new …

On The Edge Of Being, Zoe Gross

Masters Theses

On the Edge of Being represents a focused exploration of clay, craft, femininity, fragility, and self-care. The title is hopeful. It represents a certain radical gentleness with myself and with my work. It reminds me that as hard as I try, there is always room to grow and improve. It is also a bit of a joke with myself; I am rarely satisfied.

I began this body of work as a way of rejoicing in the tamped down impulses of my early artistic career. I wanted to infuse my work with magic: color, texture, pattern, flowers, frills, lace, kitsch and …

Very-Asian Variation, Nicholas Oh

Masters Theses

Nicholas Oh is a Korean American Artist currently working in Providence.

Oh graduated from San Francisco State University and he is currently a graduate student at Rhode Island School of Design.

He focuses on creating clay sculpture and mixed media installation that deals with race and identity as a Korean American in America.

Oh has done residencies at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan and Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Colorado and has shown at Mills College Art Museum in California, Milwaukee Art Institute in Wisconsin, American Museum of Ceramic Art and Pence Gallery in California.

Ouroboros, Christopher Dove Drury

Masters Theses

Art is communication.

Objects are for making and giving.

Life is to be loved with others.

I work directly and swiftly with material to mark time and labor.

This is a pathway to resolve suffering, to be present.

Home Is, Jodie Masterman

LSU Master's Theses

As an exploration of family and personal history, Home is. aims not only to chronicle my own experiences and memories, but to touch upon the innumerable definitions of the word “home”. The objects are rooted in personal reflection, but each one refers to an aspect of play, identity, love, loss, or regret, inherent within any family. Although they do serve as a blueprint of my life, they are meant to stand as moments shared by all.

Dearest, Grace Tessein

LSU Master's Theses

Dearest is the examination of what remains of a person, looking to the objects they cherished most while contemplating the inevitability of their certain absence. The work questions the futility of preservation in the measure of time, the failure of memories held in fragile containers, and the decay of the physical body. The materials that compose Dearest are chosen for their innate longevity and their ability to evoke remembrance.

Layered Histories, Interpretive Desires, Rachelle Dang

Theses and Dissertations

I aim to excavate source material from the past and reinterpret its significance in the present through art. I merge history with the contemporary through acts of appropriation and material exploration, creating conditions for the viewer to grapple with colonial legacies in an affective space of visual experience.

Unmaking As Making, Viola Bordon

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Artist Viola Bordon examines the processes of touch, unmaking, and materially dictated aesthetics regarding her studio practice. The philosophical ideas of absence are used to establish a purpose for undoing, which is then explored as a learning process. This process is complicated by the sense of touch, resulting in formal aesthetics that are materially inspired.

Ice Cream, Richard Frank Peterson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ice Cream is a series of 2D and 3D depictions of lawn ornaments, Charlie Brown, and novelty ice cream bars, which question how White America is indoctrinated through seemingly innocuous images and objects. The exhibition unveils the white supremacy fostered within the American way of life and articulates an environment where Americans act in racist ways when they believe they are acting morally. The research found within Ice Cream attempts to dismantle the foundation these justifications are built upon. This honesty, coupled with acknowledging that these historic traditions are rooted in racial constructs, will result in a double consciousness and …

Luminous, Antra Sinha

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

As an observer, I have enjoyed the momentary happenings of the world. In India, I have watched shimmering waves from the shores of the Bay of Bengal. In Utah, I have admired gleaming sunlight on freshly fallen snow on the mountains. Peering into the kiln at peak temperature I have been in awe of the bright white light. Close to my heart I hold the significant memory of my dog’s passing, who laid in my lap as the ball of light escaped her. I gather these fleeting moments, and carry them into my studio. I relive these happenings in my …

Anticipation Of Subsequent Days, Christopher Watt

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis exhibition is a presentation of my research into historic and autoethnographic analyses of social, material, and technical practices that support the production of atmospheric-fired stoneware and porcelain vessels. My work examines contemporary ceramic processes of wood-firing, salt-glazing and wood ash glazes and how they continue craft practices of historic traditions.

By critically examining the ceramic studio as a ground for material and ethnographic research, I aim to better understand the social conditions that support and produce atmospheric-fired ceramic practices in the 21st century, as well as how and why we continue to create such pots. My practice-based research …

Line Dance, Jessica Peterson

Art Theses

Artist Statement:

My work is based on of every day meandering lines I create while allowing my mind to wander. I draw lines on tightly thrown forms made on the wheel. The lines on my pots range from lines found in abstractions of nature from veins on leaves to wood grains on table tops. Each piece is thrown on the wheel and then receives attention during glazing. With my work I create pieces which can be displayed on the wall and functions on the table as well. The decorative imagery captures what happens when I am practicing automatic drawing on …

Polyanthroponemia: A Pursuit Of Mystery, Magdolene Dykstra

Theses and Dissertations

I wish I could believe in something. Having grown up in a religious household, I have continually teetered between faith and doubt. Landscapes seen and unseen are my last source of awe; here my doubt is suspended – for a moment. Using unfired clay, I create alternate landscapes inspired by sublime philosophy. The sublime experience is born in a sense of amazement linked to fear of something beyond our understanding or control. The amazing intricacy of microbiology, a whole universe existing alongside and inside us, fascinates me. The abundance of unfamiliar life in my work triggers a cautious curiosity. My …

Business Plan Project, Hejun Xu

MA Projects

The business plan is to build an online trade platform dedicated only to selling ceramic art and design in China, our mission is to provide high quality and modern design of ceramic art to middle - and upper - middle class of the country, and is to also reinvigorate the country’s tradition and culture of aesthetic object appreciating

Connected: An Artist’S Investigation Into Digital Communication, Brenda Roveda

Master’s Theses and Projects

The purpose of my thesis was to develop a body of utilitarian ceramic pottery, which examines the internal conflict I have with digital communication and its impact on social interactions. I draw inspiration from historic ceramic artworks for my wheel-thrown and hand-built forms. My traditionally inspired utilitarian forms are ornamented with surface decorations that represent contemporary symbols of the digital age. By doing this I intend to create artworks that allow the viewer to contemplate the evolution of human communication and their own reliance on technological devices.

My studio investigations incorporate scholarly research of historic artworks and time periods combined …

Strange Rarities, Cori Crumrine

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

‘Strange Rarities’ is a compelling and odd coupling of words, and similar to this body of work, this phrase both masks and reveals its references. ‘Strange’ defines something unfamiliar or extraordinary; ‘Rarity’ describes something that is uncommon, or the quality of being rare. Paired together, a ‘strange rarity’ refers to an object, a feeling, or a something, which discourages familiarity and excites wonder and awe.

Irrational Aggregates, Courtney N. Ryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper examines the work included in my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition entitled Irrational Aggregates. The goal of this work is to facilitate a dialogue between our natural environment and the excessive consumer-based environments in which we live. Combining a variety of ceramic techniques including hand building, wheel throwing, and casting these sculptures appear to be grown from, and even taken over by nature itself.

Often drawing inspiration from my personal narrative, that of consistent upheaval, relocation, and adjustment to new places, my work can appear both grounded and in a state of motion. I believe …

Xx Openings, Jackson Siegal

Senior Projects Spring 2018

XX Openings represents my dual sculpture and photography practice. The title comes from a 70’s domestic frame, with 20 openings of varying sizes for family pictures. Half of the slots were filled with stock pictures of smiling family scenes, while the others just had measurements for the openings themselves. The object struck me as alienating, and oppressive. I didn’t see any scene within those openings I felt connected to.

The frame came to symbolize varying perspectives, ways of seeing, and ways of being. As my sculpture practice has weighed more heavily on my work as a photographer, I feel tensions …

The Rococo Revival In Contemporary Porcelain, Ariel Senackerib

MA Theses

The contemporary design market has seen a resurgence of the rococo style. Porcelain has become a popular medium, and artists and designers have been revisiting the possibilities of it by returning to the motifs and symbols of the mid eighteenthcentury. While there is a wealth of existing literature on porcelain manufactories, including Meissen, Sèvres and others, the rococo style is often overlooked in literature for its cultural and theoretical value. The rococo has been given little consideration by art historians, because of its excessive luxury and cultural appropriation. However, many contemporary artists and designers have found new inspiration in the …

Impulsion, Nicholas Meyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The nut, bolt, and thread are symbols of order in my work. They represent a memory trace of my time growing up in Iowa and my connection to working on the family farm. These objects have the potential to exhibit elements of both simplicity and complexity, expressed through patterns and harmony, and the repetition of form, line, color, space, presentation, and ultimately, their relation to you the viewer. With this body of work, I intend to create metaphors relating to connections people have to one another, as individuals, society and ultimately as a reflection of self. The act of grouping, …

Misfits, Hanna Newman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My figurative ceramic sculptures are comprised of deconstructed, fragmented and simplified renderings of the human form. Within these sculptures I integrate materials such as human hair, fabric, wood and plaster cast body parts to mimic limbs and body mass, creating diversity in the tactile surface quality. The pastel tones, bright colors and additions of hair further obscures the realistic appearance of these beings. Clay's malleability fuels my intuitive creative process and allows me to replicate the human form in ranges from anatomical accuracy to biomorphic abstraction.

I am inspired by the relationship between interiority and exteriority, between the mind and …

Fruitcake, Joshua Schutz

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

I explore figurative ceramics in relationship to gesture and sexual identity. The surfaces reference art history, decorative arts, and popular culture. The quasi-functional components of the work are inspired by my personal relationship with domestic objects and space. But also from the results of capitalism, which has created a materialistic, consumer-based society with heteronormative ideals. I respond to this heteronormativity by utilizing humor as a strategy to discuss subversive topics while simultaneously drawing in the viewer. I intend for the viewer to reflect on the purpose and narrative behind such flamboyant objects.