Ceramic Arts Commons^™

Rooted In Meaning: Plant Iconography On Nasca Polychrome Ceramics, Amanda G. Lange

Theses

This thesis explores the Nasca use of plant iconography as part of their polychrome ceramics produced at the end of the Early Horizon around 100 BCE to those produced in the beginning and middle of the Early Intermediate Period circa 1to 450 CE. During this time the religious site of Cahuachi was in use as a pilgrimage center as well as the production center of polychrome pottery. The Nasca created their colorful ceramics here to distribute to visiting pilgrims during times of festival or ritual. The culture’s iconography has been studied extensively, most of which focuses on the forms of …

Green + White = Pink, Dora Chen

Masters Theses

My thesis seeks to explore the unknown forces that are constantly shaping our lives. I am intrigued by the intangible connections that link people, objects, and places together, and how they manifest across space and time. As a ceramicist emphasizing both interiority and tactility, my work will dissect layered ideas of closeness and disruption in order to reveal a nuanced understanding of how we exist in perpetuity with what can’t be seen. I wish to explore this topic through carefully directed installations that emphasize intimacy and engagement among audience members. Through inspiration from my past experience, childhood memories, as well …

Spaces Of Wait And Their Weight, Eman Alhashemi

Masters Theses

i have been exploring, researching and observing what influences affect a space within the traditions, rituals, food, thoughts and behavior. what happens when that space of comfort disappears and changes? through a series of work that waits, melts, merges, and exaggerates in am attempt to find its place. as i borrow objects and movements from daily life observing my surroundings and extracting mundane things that take on different forms whether exaggerated or unidentifiable. this recent culmination of work over the two years at risd look at objects and spaces of waiting, discomfort, longing and sharing. our behavior is affected by …

Through The Kaleidoscope, Andrea Simpson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Andrea Simpson, a California-based artist with a BA and MA from the California State University of San Bernardino, draws inspiration from the transformative power of psychedelics. Her artistic style merges vibrant colors, rhythmic patterns, and abstract forms, showcased across diverse mediums including ceramics, glass, and painting. Simpson's dynamic and experimental approach to art invites viewers on a mesmerizing journey that merges music, psychedelia, and contemporary art, providing a unique and immersive encounter.

The Day Before The Day, Marlaina Lutz

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

The reason any particular moment has the potential to change the course of your life is because of the accumulation of meaningful moments that happened in between. The in between is where care happens. It’s where acts of kindness are done without witnesses and where vulnerability is met with an unconditional reception. It’s where trust is built and where our darkest and brightest parts become exposed. Can you remember what you did the day before you decided someone was your best friend? Or what you did the day before you spoke to a parent for the last time? What about …

Tea Time With The Devil, Hamish Jackson

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

Tea time with the Devil

Tea Time with the Devil began with the hypothesis that I could create a diverse palette of glazes from one local material. I chose to base my experiments on a granite from Devil’s Playground in western Utah. I collected its rocks, hauled them back to USU and crushed them into powder. Each glaze contains at least 50% of the Devil’s granite. This palette resulted from much trial and error — mostly error. Between 2020 and 2023, I ran thousands of glaze tests to formulate and hone these surfaces.

Why this place and material?

The wild …

Warmth Of The Sun, Drake M. Gerber

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Warmth of the Sun, is a reflection on personal experiences I’ve had in the landscape while living in the Northwest. This curated experience is an attempt to capture my sincerity towards a place and hold onto that feeling. I intend to share faded memories of personal experiences through enigmatic sculptures to make the viewer look a bit closer at these objects and see the landscape in a new way. This paper explores thoughts on the idea of place, material, process, contemporary influences, and the experiences that inspired this body of work.

Crafting Community: A Ceramics Center, Nadia Mechboukh

Theses and Dissertations

For artisans, being part of a community can facilitate engaging with the public. Networking and collaborating with peers are vital for building meaningful relationships that can lead to mutual inspiration and learning opportunities. By strengthening the connection between society and various forms of craft, we can weave invisible threads that link the stories that craft tells with the time and place in which they were created. Pottery is a craft that has existed for thousands of years. Ceramics and clay have carried the history of communities and their ways of living through centuries and have been used as identifiers of …

Frewayni's Garden: Preserving Tigrayan Culture During A Period Of Ethnocide, Gabrielle F. Tesfaye

Theses and Dissertations

The recent and ongoing genocidal war in Tigray, Ethiopia, has witnessed the destruction and looting of countless historical religious sites, ancient manuscripts, and artifacts, leaving Tigray’s remaining cultural heritage extremely vulnerable. Such cultural loss erases a shared understanding across generations, robbing them of their history and identity. My work contributes to the safeguarding of Tigray’s cultural heritage and collective memory, informed by literature on cultural preservation efforts in post-war societies, and a series of interviews with Tigrayans in the diaspora and in Ethiopia.

The outcome of this thesis is embodied in a series of distinct jebenas, traditional Tigrayan clay coffee …

Exploring Growth, Integration, & Play Working In Clay: Finding Pathways To Healing And Hope, Dana A. Bridges

MSU Graduate Theses

I find therapeutic qualities in all the aspects of my studio practice and haptic experience: from the grounding sensory experience of clay, the quiet meditative motions of creating and constructing, acceptance or repair of mistakes, and the integration of failures which may occur. Specifically, I channel my experience to explore the themes of growth, integration, and play. By exploring these themes in the quiet and safety of my clay-studio, I engage in the opportunity to investigate these themes on a formal, practical, and personal level. I create the forms by hand or on the potter’s wheel. After constructing the forms, …