Setting:Home, Adrienne Cole

CGU MFA Theses

I look at the world graphically, seeing people as objects, objects as shapes and shapes as lines. I develop these elements into textural abstractions and patterned representations. Sometimes my work is almost entirely abstract while at other times traces of visual references can be seen. I am interested in intersections and in-between; my works fill space with disorder allowing the audience to see through my scattered, confusing and often times mysterious lens.

Stumbling Into The Spiral: A Serendipitous Steam Exploration, David Rufo

The STEAM Journal

An artist-educator discovers how a STEAM-based approach to making art brings together a variety of subject areas in surprising ways.

Passing, Paul Kelley

The STEAM Journal

Passing is a Site-specific public installation assembled with plastic and an iPad. At its center, the iPad displays a video loop of a human image repeatedly walking in and out of the frame. The work maintains my foundational interest in having the viewer slow down to have a more thoughtful and absorptive experience with the work and surrounding space – continuing my practice of challenging viewer’s expectations and putting them in a position to stop and question.

Combining An Intuitive Art Workshop And Neuroscience Rituals To Make Us Happy, Audrey Gran Weinberg

The STEAM Journal

One might wonder how intuitive art can connect to neuroscience and how this could be accomplished. In this descriptive article, research connecting art therapy and neuroscience has been collected and a workshop on Intuitive Painting has been described in detail. The connection was made by the author based on an article by Barker (2017), ‘4 Rituals to be more Happy,’ who writes a popular science blog. The rituals: gratefulness, expressing negative emotions, decision making and human touch were combined with Dr. Pinkie Feinstein’s method of Intuitive Painting in a small group setting. Although subjective, it would seem that at least …

Wonder, Walking, And Water, Rachel Mayeri

The STEAM Journal

Art and Science is a seminar and studio course on science-inspired art practices. We will survey and discuss cutting-edge art-science theory, practice, and institutions in seminar. In studio, we examine art-science topics in hands-on experiments, and guided activities leading to art projects.

Elements Of Art, Mike Doyle

The STEAM Journal

Through these paintings and my writing I share how elements of art and science overlap in the strokes of paint that create the perceptions of something familiar in our minds.

A New Generation For Art And Science, Alice Marie Perreault

The STEAM Journal

My interest in this cross-over between art and science, specifically, the body and supportive technologies, has lead me to mixed media and installations where I can examine degeneration and a “new” generation using a combination of conventional and unconventional materials. Unlike re-generation, which is a return to an original state, “new” generation gives way to new arrangements.

Blowouts, Bricks, And Lines, Kenneth Fandell

The STEAM Journal

This essay shares the interdisciplinary insights from three projects

Sediment - Behind The Cover Art, Melanie Moore Bermudez

The STEAM Journal

Ideas of mapping, topography, erosion and evaporation have been loosely connected to my work for several years now. In my latest series I have put more of a focus on those ideas. In particular I am interested in the movement of sediment pushed by a flow of water and then left, stranded in a new location, as that water source dries up and diminishes. The pigments of the ink in the paintings are my sediment that I build up layer after layer to create a mini geological world caught in a moment of shift, pause and flow.

Sediment, Melanie Moore Bermudez

The STEAM Journal

Ideas of mapping, topography, erosion and evaporation have been loosely connected to my work for several years now. In my latest series I have put more of a focus on those ideas. In particular I am interested in the movement of sediment pushed by a flow of water and then left, stranded in a new location, as that water source dries up and diminishes. The pigments of the ink in the paintings are my sediment that I build up layer after layer to create a mini geological world caught in a moment of shift, pause and flow.

Discovering And Demonstrating Patterns, Maria Klawe

The STEAM Journal

Harvey Mudd College's President Maria Klawe shares her personal journey in combining a love of mathematics and art.

All Glory Is Fleeting, Steven Beswick

CGU MFA Theses

The statement is specifically linked to my MFA thesis exhibition.

"Some Kinda Alchemy", Chelsea Boxwell

CGU MFA Theses

Multiple pieces and paintings come together in “Some kinda Alchemy” to create one large-scale painting environment that increases your interaction and perception of two- dimensional painting. The sculptural aspect is solely a means to an end, to allow the viewer to see more. I want everyone to see as much as possible- as much of the physical painting as possible and as much of the process and actions as possible. There’s more than just a front and 4 sides to my paintings. This structure also inhabits the space the way it does in order to direct you all the way …

Artist Statement, Chaoyi Wu

CGU MFA Theses

I make my work to create an experience for the viewer, so that they can have their own experience of their world. Their bodies interact with my pieces to re-recognize themselves and their lives. In this experience their body is independent of everything else but their awareness. Their sense of movement, their vision and their tactile sensations come together into my artwork for them to have their own experience. This is what I call self-body awareness.

Hardcore Frivolity, Dixie Lyn Boswell

CGU MFA Theses

I believe in experiencing the world and truth through all the senses. Digging beneath the surface and not stopping at the first thing that flutters through my head. My art installations work with light, abstract imagery, reflective surfaces, and motion, to manipulate spaces creating multi-sensory experiences that encourage a heightened awareness of being in one's body.

Tony Larson: 2017 Mfa Thesis Exhibition, Tony Larson

CGU MFA Theses

I am interested in altering the modes of communication to which I am subjugated. I am open to participating fully in the world around me, especially in the arms of technology. With every new media channel directed at changing consumer behavior and every new gadget at its dedicated servitude, there are new cracks and chasms to inhabit. These spaces are where new propositions are made. I discover and expand these empty spaces by sticking to a regimented set of processes and self imposed limitations to the way I approach painting. My work proposes that the space of art is uniquely …

Everything, Everything Seemed Once-Upon-A-Time, Denisse Leung Liu

CGU MFA Theses

The pleasant feeling of being relaxed is what I want the viewer to feel with my work. The art I make is the source of peacefulness and tranquility I treasure, in a way that there is tranquility and absence of noise, yet it whispers quietly to the viewer.

Everything, Everything Seemed Once-Upon-A-Time, Denisse Leung Liu

CGU MFA Theses

The pleasant feeling of being relaxed is what I want the viewer to feel with my work. The art I make is the source of peacefulness and tranquility I treasure, in a way that there is tranquility and absence of noise, yet it whispers quietly to the viewer.

Temp Permit, Zhaoyang Zheng

CGU MFA Theses

My work focus on the isolation and alienation between society and individual. As an artist, I also regard myself as a tourist, tourists are people who would like to explore and find special things which are not familiar to them. Usually a tourist is isolated from others because of his unfamiliarity with culture and language. It is hard for a tourist to fit into society which is same for artists: they like to explore different and most of the time they are isolated from main stream society.

Letian Luo Thesis Statement, Letian Luo

CGU MFA Theses

My work started out originating from my dreams, but recently it has moved away from that source. To make the cut outs, I would scribble on the back of a small sheet of scarp paper. Then I discovered that if I cut out the scribble, it become more interesting than the dream work. So I developed the scribbles further. I enlarged them, made them more complex and gestural, and then cut them out, meticulously and with painstaking attentiveness. The process allowed me to draw with knife. I very enjoy the process of me making the cut outs. It got increasingly …

Aesthetic Survival, Adrienne Devine

CGU MFA Theses

I am a mixed media artist and my creative process is guided by cultural memory, the materials I use, and the pleasure I find in the activity of making. My compulsion to make things is accompanied by a propensity for scholarship, hence, my thesis exhibition incorporates Index Obscura; a growing visual and text-based corpus of research into the history and presence of African American artists in the tapestry of American art and culture. I work with a variety of materials and techniques, and consider wide-ranging themes, connected by recurring motifs, gestures, and attributes. Abstraction creates space wherein viewers can …

Finding The Surface, Rafaella F. Suarez

CGU MFA Theses

I find the relationship of pool structures and water fascinating. The architecture of pools is often hard edged and geometric while water is a fluid and formless, an organic substance that takes the shape of whatever contains it. I am drawn to that paradox. Rather than pulling them apart because of their conflicting existences, they create a space that’s cohesive but inexplicable, a space that’s both reciprocally intertwined and interdependent. My work is set up within the idea of creating a conflicting yet cohesive space. Visually, corporally and conceptually, it creates experiences that are disorienting.

My work serves as a …

I Promise, Maya Luque

CGU MFA Theses

This exhibition is about Chinese burial sites and the practices that accompany the loss of a loved one. The Chinese have a practice where they build large earthen mounds as burial sites; they then visit the sites of their ancestors once a year. I have made my own burial site out of beeswax-dipped paper, which I have then stitched together, like a quilt, to form a hollow version of this mound. In traditional Western home economics quilt making is important; in my installation I use the stitch work to represent a home. In this installation my aim is for the …

She-Ra, Jennifer King

CGU MFA Theses

Painting primarily in oils on canvas, my work confronts themes of femininity and power in contemporary life. I create images through a mix of the imagined and the observed, focusing on the female form. The figures I paint exude feelings of uncertainty, unease, disconnect, but also strength and heightened awareness. There exists a sense of longing and desire to break out of her confined space, to be a strong female individual, ignoring anyone's expectations. Subtle expressions are contrasted with vibrant, sensual colors; her way of grabbing your attention. My goal is to portray a female perspective regarding identity in an …

My Flesh Is Your Pasture, Dakota Noot

CGU MFA Theses

Painting my body frees it from the limits of reality. My body exists in a collaged state between man and woman, human and animal, abstract and figurative. By embracing my body’s power as an object, it isn’t limited to being a representation of myself. My painted body can be owned or identified with. It can be feared, hated, and lusted after. I submit my body, blasting it with horror, humor, and a sheer sense of enjoyment.

Fugitive Fragment, Diana Campuzano

CGU MFA Theses

My work explores the fugitive beauty around us and tries to capture and embody it. For my work IC5070 I began with an image of a nebula IC5070, I created a work that hung from the ceiling and was 27 feet square and hung down 8 feet to just above the viewers. I explore the micro and the macro worlds with many of my works crossing back and forth between

Frankenstein's Onion, Chien Tai

CGU MFA Theses

Gas Lamps, Laura Wilde

CGU MFA Theses

My work investigates the role and dynamic of society, culture, and familial influence on the masculinity and femininity within our individuality. It specifically deals with my on going discovery of the masculine side of my personality, and how the feminine roll is influenced, or not influenced, by this. I have been applying Jungian psychology and the theory of individuation, archetypes, and so forth, to my process. I have made several bodies of work in a quest to understand the fundamental roles that femininity and masculinity have affected my choices and individual understanding. Documenting old and new relationships, I make puppets, …

Daughter, Wife, Mother: Women As Emblems Of Indian Authenticity Throughout The Diaspora, Saloni Kaur Kalkat

Scripps Senior Theses

It has been over a century since the maternal side of my family has resided in the natal land of our cultural heritage and religious proclivities – Punjab, India, where Sikhism was established. As an American I continue this extension of our roots from their source. Through the process of shifting location, cultural confluence, and passing time the experiences of the women in each successive generation of my family have altered significantly through our diasporic existence. However, even in the aftermath of colonization and immigration, the enduring responsibility of women is reliant upon their relation to family.

This ideology is …

Trauma And Recovery: A Confessional Process, Mia Siracusa

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper is about a confessional painting series, which appropriates Abstract Expressionist techniques, and is on geometric canvas reliefs. The main focus through out the series is the process of my recovery from a traumatic event and the process of the creation of a language through abstraction.