Art Practice Commons^™

Shaping The Witch: A Visual Art Thesis, Amanda Cobb

University Honors Theses

This thesis is an exploration of the complex and interconnected nature of folklore, personal mythology, and re-enchantment as expressed through the lens of puppetry. I have drawn inspiration from the works of deeply reflective works concerning the psychological nature of mythologies of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, as well as the magical and beautiful work of artists Jim Henson, Brian and Wendy Froud, and Mercer Meyer. Through working in the medium of puppets, I have given consideration to the possibilities and limitations of these forms in expressing the complexity of narrative, personal mythology, the anxiety of disenchantment, lost and reclaimed …

Disrupting The City: Using Urban Screens To Remediate Public Space, Jean Dubois, Dave Colangelo, Claude Fortin

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

For over a decade, human-computer interaction (HCI) research placed a great deal of emphasis on studying interaction, engagement, and appropriative practices in online technology-mediated social environments. Moving forward, however, we see computing systems increasingly designed to support digitally-augmented face-to-face interactions in public settings. As far back as the nineteen seventies, new media artists anticipated this interactive potential of digital public displays to foster new forms of situated interactions in urban space, quite distinct from mobile computing in that they altogether exclude online connections or exchanges. Drawing on examples of practice, this paper discusses and show-cases some of the key creative …

Curating Massive Media, Dave Colangelo

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

The European Union’s media art initiative Connecting Cities and New York-based Streaming Museum are two recent examples of curatorial models that operate through large, networked, digital displays. This growing exhibition category combines expressive media architecture and telecommunication elements to engage ‘trans-local’ sites and diverse publics in complex media spaces. By investigating the confluence of exhibition making, public art and urban experience, this article explores the relationship between spectacle and criticality with respect to shifting notions of space, identity and ‘the common’.

Note: At the time of writing, Dave Colangelo was affiliated with Ryerson University.

Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), Dave Colangelo

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

A review of the 12th Istanbul Biennial, held in 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey, with a focus on curatorial decision making and how this is thematically expressed in the exhibition.

Again, With Feeling! [Exhibition Catalogue], Dave Colangelo

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

Again, With Feeling! presents the work of artists whose visions are injected with properties of pattern, repetition, and appropriation. Taking cues from the everyday, the works displayed show new incarnations or morphs of their originals. This multidisciplinary show explores the ‘re’-mixing, producing, or contextualizing of an original, whether through motif, object or experience. By re-negotiating the terms around their borrowed imagery or performance, these artists present us with a fresh composition of a thing we’ve seen before.

The Car Park, Dave Colangelo

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay uses the work of Marc Augé as a lens through which to view the supermodern urban space, and how the concept of place is manufactured and negotiated. The author focuses on a car park to elucidate these themes, and agrees with Augé, who claims that non-places such as car parks fail to create identity or relations.

Moving Pictures, Melissa Ann Mcclure

Dissertations and Theses

My thesis work includes 10 large drawings that explore the narrative qualities of line movement. I use line in these drawings as a recording device to document both the physical activity of the process and the personal experience that the lines represent. Through this work I attempt to develop a language of visual imagery that is autobiographical in nature. A system of personal symbols and recurring forms make up the structure of this visual vocabulary. Line movement and rhythm provides a sense of the dialog.

An Exploration Of Some Aspects Of Mystery, Terry Foster Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis project consists of twenty-four paintings, drawings and lithographs dealing with three sub-themes of the larger subject of mystery: the mystery of existence; the mystery of religion; the mystery of the unknown. These themes are explored through manipulations of light, color, compositional arrangement and painting and drawing techniques.

Snake River : A Personal Search, Eva Havas Slinker

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis includes twenty landscape paintings, primarily oil on canvas, inspired by a trip to the Hell's Canyon Country of the Snake River.

The search for a personal idiom necessitated introspection, and the visual interpretation of the recalled experience required that formal issues of painting be synthesized to communicate the essential response to the landscape. The images progress from the depiction of deep space to compositions of the component parts of the landscape: trees, water, and rock.

Torso As Ceramic Vessel, Richard Garrett Masterson

Dissertations and Theses

The ceramic forms in this thesis project represent a study of the sculptural and figurative qualities of the ceramic process. This study includes a search for a personal form language, development of the slab construction technique, and development of a glazed surface appropriate to the work. The subject of the work is the human torso, with the vessel-like forms focusing on the core of the body as a metaphor for the core of the human spirit.

Enhanced Realism In The Development Of My Painting, Zifen Qian

Dissertations and Theses

It is a basic truth that the artist must have independent experience and personality in order to create art from life. Combining a traditional realistic style with some elements of abstract composition fits my personality. My paintings represent a pursuit of this idea that is the enhanced realism in the development of my painting.

Dudelsacks: Sculptural Extensions In Blown Glass, Cristine C. Corcoran

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis project consists of 19 sculptures. The medium is hot blown glass. The work interprets and extends the visual and metaphorical qualities of bagpipes. The utilization of the German dudelsack references the playful improvisational nature of these international and culturally diverse forms.

Some Visual Issues Of Painting : An Exploration Of The Painting Process, Barbara Leedy Branham

Dissertations and Theses

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Art: Painting.

Things Seen And Remembered, Charlien Dee Fitzpatrick

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis project consists of twenty oil paintings and watercolors. It is a series of visual problems based on work from direct observation as opposed to work from imagination. The concern is to show how the works from observed nature affect the imaginary pieces and how the imaginary works lend unexpected elements to the observed works. With a particular interest in color, visual energy, and painterly form, the project shows how these two avenues of exploration start out separately and eventually blend.

Bronze Casting By The Lost Wax Method Employing Mixed Media, Donna M. Pickett

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is for a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture.

Seven Dyads, Donovan Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is for a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture.

The Formal Language Of Nonobjective Art, Gwen M. Erickson

Dissertations and Theses

A thesis report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Painting.

Transparent Landscape, Elizabeth Harris

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is for a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and features the work of Elizabeth Harris.

Jewelry From The Environment, Douglas Lawrence Kollmeyer

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis deals with the development of a body of my own creative work and the teaching of jewelry-working in the secondary schools. Emphasis in both instances was given to the use of the natural environment as a stimulus for design ideas. The philosophy of nature as art forms has been the focus of my creative endeavors for several years. This lead to the design and completion of jewelry, flatware, and holloware in this study. Knowledge gained in my work experiences formed the basis and background of the presentation of these skills to secondary students.

Synergism Of Substance And Emotion, Carolyn Jean Mills

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis features the work of Carolyn Jeans Mills for a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture.

Photo-Realist Portraiture, Elaine R. Fleskes

Dissertations and Theses

A thesis report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Painting.

Overgrown Geometry, Connie Earnshaw

Dissertations and Theses

A thesis report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics.

A Harmony Of Opposites, Patricia Reppenhagen

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is for a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and feature the work and words of Patricia Reppenhagen.

Image Development Through Process, Jean Handwerk Lee

Dissertations and Theses

A Thesis Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Painting.

Images From The Horse Heavens, David Thornock

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is for a Master of Fine Arts in Painting.

The Pursuit Of Form, Robert Allen Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis includes the work of Robert Allen Anderson for a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture.

Adjustable Systems In Wood, James Richard True

Dissertations and Theses

A Thesis Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture.

Transparent Sculptures, Lithographs, And Watercolors : A Personal Response To The Natural World, Stephan Spencer Soihl

Dissertations and Theses

The group of works that I am presenting as my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition is a selection of my best work from the past three years. It is made up of two different artistic forms: fairly small sculptures comprised of aluminum channel and plexiglas, on the one hand, and lithographs and watercolors, on the other.

An Introduction To Black And White Lithography : Two Alternatives To The Stone, Carolyn Brookhart

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis describes two lithographic techniques that may be used to introduce black and white lithography to beginning art students. Aluminum plate and paper lithography are two relatively low cost and safe lithographic methods suitable for schools with limited budgets and limited space.

It is recommended that the instructor interested in teaching the two processes described in this thesis have some previous experience in lithography.

Stone Sculpture, Laura P. Bogdan

Dissertations and Theses

A terminal project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture.