Art Practice Commons^™

Between, Summer Janelle

CGU MFA Theses

My art evolves out of deep attentiveness to idiosyncratic aspects of mundane experience. These aspects of experience are manifested through body language, gestures, facial expressions, and the peripheral hunch. They arise from the awkward and pleasurable peculiarities of interacting with humanity on a daily basis. My work also touches upon fantasies and private thoughts that can determine behavior when individuals interact.Please see Download button in top right corner for the full statement.

The Mcfarlands: "One Season"., John Edwin May

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is in support of the Master of Fine Arts exhibition entitled The McFarlands at East Tennessee State University, Slocumb Galleries, Johnson City, Tennessee, November 5^th - 9^th, 2007. This artist's photographic survey, which lasted approximately two years, investigated the lifeworld of a family in a rural Appalachian town. His photographic work depicts the subjects working on their farm growing tobacco and their relationships within the family unit.

The artist discusses his work in terms of historical and contemporary influences with an emphasis on the relationship to the work of Lewis W. Hine, Wright Morris, …

Reverbotone - Visualize Music With Design., William Baxter Bledsoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis was written as a supporting paper for a graphic design exhibit for a Master of Fine Arts Degree. The focus of my work is to visualize an interpretation of a collection of songs that make up an album in which the design communicates the content of the body of music.

This thesis showcases a record that actually exists but has never been released. This affords me the opportunity to create a design that defines the content of the record work in a visual manner. This thesis paper covers the methods and motivations by which I arrived to the …

24 Hour Portraits, Lee R. Cowan

Theses and Dissertations

I believe an individual can be profiled by their color preferences, but not indefinitely, for a shorter period of time, a 24-hour period of time. A person's state of mind will change continually based on their experiences. These experiences will affect their perception and preference of color. I developed a model that will map an individual's profile, a portrait, through color. Participants are given a worksheet and a list of terms describing personality traits and states of mind. The worksheet is categorized by event, time of day, duration, impact, and summed term. From midnight to midnight, a 24-hour period, the …

Earth Forms, Janelle Marie Tullis Mock

Theses and Dissertations

Earth Forms narrates and explains the Masters Project Exhibition by the same name. The sculptures included in the exhibition, Earth Forms, use a variety of personal symbols centered on one stylized human head. Some of the symbols included are antlers, branches, coral, leaves, plants and stones. Each of these symbols represents personal ideas of balance, growth and decay. They also represent the earth from which we are formed and the earth to which our bodies will return at the end of life.

Peregrinations, Sallie Clinton Poet

Theses and Dissertations

This project report explains my MFA show of landscapes presented at the Woodbury Museum in Orem, Utah. Referencing source material from my 2008 trip to the Middle East, Bible narratives and contemporary scholars, I created mixed media paintings around the themes of traveling and migrations (peregrinations) and some significant stopping places in Syria, Jordan and Israel. More importantly, this report also speaks to my personal peregrinations as an artist and relates my painting methods to my subject matter.

Dissecting The Science Of Book Design, Krista Trapani

Graphic Communication

No abstract provided.

East Vs. West: Best Way To Bind Books, Wei-Ting (Tina) Chen

Graphic Communication

No abstract provided.

The Door In The Threshold., Ani Kristine Volkan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is the supporting document for the Master of Fine Arts exhibition, The Door in the Threshold, held in the Slocumb Galleries at East Tennessee State University from March 15-19, 2010. The exhibition contains twelve pieces of artwork, mounted on the wall. The paper expands upon such themes as memory and family as explored by the work in the gallery. The title of both the paper and show reference the impact of my Armenian heritage on my creative process. Doors in Armenian folklore were sacred places containing the threshold to the spiritual. Thus, my pieces are meant to …

Morphisms., Samuel W. Crowe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I discuss my Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Morphisms, hosted by Slocomb Galleries on the campus of East Tennessee State University March 22 through March 26, 2010. The exhibit includes works created during the artist's three year study at East Tennessee State University.

The exhibition consists of works that address the projection of human qualities on domesticated animals and the projection of animal qualities onto mythological deities. Discussion also includes the process involved in creating the artwork as well as artistic influences in technical concepts.

Newfangled., John Daniel Simmons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper supports the Master of Fine Arts exhibition at the B. Carroll Reece Museum, East Tennessee State University, from March 9th through April 22nd, 2010. The exhibit is comprised of 62 unique ceramic pieces, which are presented on pedestals and wall mounted shelves. The exhibition presents the artist's exploration of form and surface used to create functional pottery. Topics discussed are the influences, concepts, techniques, and methods used to create the work. Included are process images, detail images, and images of selected works from the exhibition.

To End In Silence., Justin R. Hammer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis supports the Master of Fine Arts exhibition, To End In Silence, at the Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University, March 15-19, 2010. The exhibit consists of fourteen pieces, which are either presented on pedestals or mounted on the wall.

To comment on the title of my thesis, it is a description of the state of calm that I strive to embrace during the creation of my work and the unobtrusive yet engaging tone that I hope for each finished composition to project. This paper explores the aesthetic and conceptual transitions in my work, inspired by a period …

Increments Of Fourteen, Rachel C. Edwards

Scripps Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Cell(F), Nicole Lynn Herden

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

I see the human experience as composed of both objectivity and subjectivity. Objectivity in that science has helped us better understand our physicality, such as defining biological processes within our body. Empirical knowledge has provided a level of truth in explaining a foundation for our existence.

Subjective experiences materialize as we engage within the environment. Walking in the park or purchasing food seem to be similar experiences for everyone in that we can envision the process of doing it; however, that process is an individual process composed of unique characteristics and perspectives. A subjective experience is as unique as one’s …

From "Stalinkas" To "Khrushchevkas": The Transition To Minimalism In Urban Residential Interiors In The Soviet Union From 1953 To 1964, Ksenia Choate

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

During the shift from the rule of Joseph Stalin to that of Nikita Khrushchev, people in the Soviet Union witnessed dramatic political, economic, and social changes, evident even in such private aspects of life as residential home interiors.

The major architectural style of Stalin's era, known as Stalin's Empire Style, was characterized by grandeur and rich embellishments. The buildings' interiors were similarly grandiose and ornate. By endorsing this kind of design, Stalin attempted to position himself as an heir of classical traditions, to encourage respect for his regime, and to signal his power. When Nikita Khrushchev became the country's leader …

Appeasing The Animal, Kierstyn Gaye Lamour

Masters Theses

“Appeasing the Animal” is collection of thirty-two poems that represent a fight and conciliation between the civilized self and the spectrum of human needs in a socially constructed reality. These explorations were split into male and female representations of the human psyche. This intersection is also a place that investigates mothers & daughters, politics, sex, crisis, religion, and other important points of dramatic conflict.

Fabricating Womanhood, Emily Fox

Theses and Dissertations

The exhibit, Fabricating Womanhood, was an attempt to explore the construction of gender and identity. While the artwork addressed well researched and documented feminist themes the artwork also stemmed from personal experiences and my coming-of-age process. The resulting installation included video, prints, painting, ceramics and found objects arranged in a set-like house construction of life-size proportions.

Bestiary, Rebecca N. Tice

CGU MFA Theses

My work focuses on the fantastic and the peculiar. It grows out of an interest in animals, myth, and the human tendency to anthropomorphize.

Wunderkammer, Dai Toyofuku

CGU MFA Theses

I manufacture objects that confuse classification and cross boundaries. Part unicorn horn and part Narwhal tusk, these objects straddle categorical containers. My sculptures attempt to break free from inherited structures of knowledge and modes of seeing. The boxes and pedestals are akin to these imposed structures, though these traditional structures always fall just short of fulfilling their supposed function; these categorical containers slowly leak.

Doubting Thomas, Michael K. Carter

CGU MFA Theses

My work is a deliberate attempt at a personal sense of wrongness. I believe that encountering this wrongness is more sincere and revealing of myself and my audience then any attempt at correctness could be. I feel there is a vulnerability and exposure in being the first to speak up, to leap before looking, to react without thinking, analyze or process experience.

Yarell Castellanos, Artist Statement, Yarell Castellanos

CGU MFA Theses

My work explores the beautiful aspects of the grotesque elements in nature. My goal is to make conflicted and contradictory pieces in which abstraction and representation interact. I find that contradictions and extreme behaviors in nature to be stimulating.

Which Is Not One, Alex C. Moore

CGU MFA Theses

Specific yet anonymous, my paintings allow the viewer to sit within what would normally be a fleeting moment of intimacy.

Igolf: Contemporary Sculptures Exhibition 2009, King Lun Kisslan Chan

Theses and Dissertations

Why "igolf"? I love golfing, especially enjoying the gigantic space of the golf course. More importantly, this is the place where I dream and get inspiration for my art. I imagine filling my own global golf course with monumental golf sculptures in the future. This motivation and enthusiasm has modified my direction in creating sculpture. I named my final MFA exhibition "igolf". The idea of the name comes from modern terms we find in popular devices, such as the iPhone, iPod, and the iMac that reflect our technological world. In addition, the sound for "i" shares the same sound of …

Leland F. Prince's Earth Divers, Leland Fred Prince

Theses and Dissertations

My stoneware sculptures in my MFA final project were named Earth Divers because clay as a material is earth and clay is also symbolic of the Earth. The way that I physically dive into clay up to my elbows is a poetic performance. The sculptures were built in sections horizontally and then stacked vertically. I began the process by first making life size plaster molds of the human figure taken from live people. Earth Divers take their architectural structure specifically from the organic curves of the negative voids that are characteristic of the plaster figure molds. I built into these …

The Nature Of Making Sense, Allison Alford

CGU MFA Theses

My interest is to breed the mystical with the mundane, producing informational systems that coalesce knowledge, ambiguity, logic and fantasy. The species that populate my imagery are totems that could function as heroines, monsters or shapes that elude and inform us. The work functions as a stage upon which, pixels, paint and mystical figures coexist. Each panel acts as a composite of multiple frames of a video: figures combine with paintings, drawings, symbols, and landscape. Though ultimately singular in image, the pictures imply multiplicity. The lineage of the work can be traced to influences such as François Dufrêne, Max Ernst’s …

The Observer Effect, Azadeh Tajpour

CGU MFA Theses

My work explores the gray area and the shifting border between "us" and "other." It investigates the helplessness and the submissiveness on both sides of this spectrum and one's passivity that makes the "pain of others" inevitable. Moreover, it examines the individual and collective experiences of guilt and complicity in relation to world events. I am interested in the selective and repressed memories of individuals and nations, the reluctance to look and the ability to forget.

Gamespace, Kevin M. Scianni

CGU MFA Theses

My work uses gameplay, the experience of interacting with a gaming system, as a strategy to generate paintings. I interact with a set of rules, challenges and goals loosely derived from the structure of early videogames as a method to compose a painting. I am interested in how game strategies can address formal aspects of painting. I am also interested in how gameplay as an indicator of game quality or the desire to continually be challenged will continually advance the paintings.

Juvenescence: Photographs By Jordan Lutes, Jordan Lutes

Art and Design

Shot entirely on expired 35mm film, Juvenescence explores the life of youths on the central coast of California. Research was done on how to alter film and gain color-shifts to better depict moods and lifestyles in the images.

Shhh... Say Nothing, Luis Rendon

CGU MFA Theses

My art is the foundation I use to commune with myself and bridge the gap to the rest of the world. A gap created by everyday being surrounded by information, so much so that it is easy to become numb. I do not want, because of my inability to filter the relentless onslaught of information, to walk through life tuned off. All that undigested knowledge leaves me feeling distant from myself and unable to connect with others. This leaves me with the sensation of not knowing myself.

Deep End, Emily Smith

CGU MFA Theses

In my work I examine how and where nature and culture collide, merge, overlap or become one. Ultimately my goal is to draw attention to the ways we perceive and remember nature as well as ho w we experience the natural landscape in opposition to built environments. I am also interested in how our relation to these spaces changes over time and how we might envision these environments in the not-s o-distant future.