Art and Design Commons^™

Calm Mid-Century Playlist, Charlene Muyargas-Duque

Illustration Student Work

This illustration is a cover for a mid-century music playlist. Inspired by old jazz vinyl covers and Rene Gruau‘s fashion illustrations, it has a plain cream background with a thick pink border, mid-century styled typography, and an elegant woman in a turquoise dress. The woman is modeled off of Julie London, a prominent jazz singer from the 1940s to 1960s.

The Reveal: A Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of An Overpaint Portrait, Camille Ferrer

Art Conservation Master's Projects

A severely damaged 19th-century oil painting depicting a portrait of a woman was treated at Patricia H. and E. Garman Art Conservation Department. A typed letter provided by the owner mentioned that it has been previously restored yet returned with unsatisfactory results. After further examination, the painting appeared to have been previously treated multiple times by different people. There was overpaint distinctly present on the face and later discovered to be present overall. The full state of condition of the painting was initially unknown due to the sum of the surface being overpainted. However, there were evidence of paint loss …

Not So Cavalier: Technical Study And Conservation Treatment Of A Potential 17th Century Anglo-Dutch Military Portrait Painting, Josephine Ren

Art Conservation Master's Projects

A potential 17^th century Anglo-Dutch military portrait painting from the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York arrived at the Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State University for conservation research and treatment in 2022. The painting’s title, date, and artist were unknown and the subject was initially referred to as a “17^th Century Dutch Cavalier.” Little information existed on the provenance and history of the artwork. The painting was in a state of structural instability and aesthetic disfigurement and showed evidence of a past restoration campaign. This master’s project attempted to broadly …

Nineteen Figures And Counting: Contextualization And Conservation Treatment Of A Jacob Spoel Painting, Susan P. Enterline

Art Conservation Master's Projects

This study focuses on the research, technical analysis, and treatment of an 1852 Jacob Spoel painting (Untitled, acc.62.28, 80cm H x 105cm W x 1.75cm D) owned by the Memorial Art Gallery and described as a ‘family gathering.’ When received by the department, the painting was not in a fit state for display; it was not structurally sound and had a disfiguring varnish reducing the readability of the composition. Technical research, multimodal imaging, radiography, and instrumental analysis, including x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, cross-sectional analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, were carried out to understand the materials and …

Christ Child Bearing The Instruments Of The Passion Technical Study And Treatment Of A Painting On Copper From The Viceroyalty Of Peru, Daniela González-Pruitt

Art Conservation Master's Projects

Christ Child Bearing the Instruments of the Passion (acc.# 228017) is a 17^th century Peruvian Viceregal painting on copper belonging to the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. The painting depicts the Christ Child on a flower laid path as he carries the instruments of the passion also known as the Arma Christi Paintings executed on copper convey new and challenging preservation issues based on their materials and techniques.. The work had been heavily restored and exhibited several condition issues, including significant overpaint and broad losses. The painting was photographed using multimodal imaging techniques as well as reflectance …

Texas Gothic, Taryn Uribe Turner

Art Theses and Dissertations

The emotional and the ecological combine to create my body of work titled, “Texas Gothic.” My thesis tells the stories of my oil paintings created through personal connections to a variety of landscapes, animals and experiences that share the setting of Texas.

Desire and regret take shape as animals and figures not fully formed or real. Unreliable narratives of the past are entangled with present tensions to create a painting that haunts and stalks.

And yet, there is hope!

Through nostalgia and sweetness and burdens, my paintings confront a shrouded future. The contradictions of time passing are explored in my …

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

Fragmented Bodies, Lauren Careese Alexander

Art Theses and Dissertations

Through Memory Webs and fragmented ceramic vessels, I express what it feels like to grow up living in a biracial body. I utilize mixed media to emulate a mixed-race experience. My Memory Webs are fashioned by painting on scraps of canvas and attaching them with crocheted wire and ribbon to speak to how my memory has impacted my identity. My fragmented ceramic vessels are cut up and stitched back together to represent disjointedness and un-belonging. All of my work is contextualized through the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and what the Monster may represent for people of color. I also …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

The Coptic Horseman And Its Preserved Cultural Identity, Elizabeth L. Hines

Student Research Symposium

The familiar image of a warrior atop a horse riding into battle can be seen in many different cultures across large spans of time and space. The symbolic meaning behind this image varies culturally, but it was traditionally seen as a symbol of political, military, or religious power. This image displayed on textiles depended not only on culture, but also in the geographical region from which it came, from where these Coptic fragments were originally cut, how they were woven, and how they were used. This presentation will examine a fifth-century Egyptian Coptic textile displaying such an image, a textile …

Mindspace: A Multi-Media Art Exhibition On C-Ptsd Awareness, Emma Wallace

Student Research Symposium

"Mindspace" is an autobiographical art exhibition aimed at raising awareness about Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) through a multi-sensory experience. The exhibition combines sculpture, lights, sound, and video projection to immerse viewers in the intricate emotional landscape of C-PTSD. Through a series of sculptural installations and carefully curated lighting and audio, visitors are invited to explore the internal world of an artist affected by C-PTSD and learn how it differs from PTSD and other types of mental health issues.

“Mindspace" incorporates specially composed soundscapes that offer an intimate look into the artist’s thoughts and memories, which range from spoken word …

Diverse Voices, Sticky Maps And Wicked Patterns. Using Creative Methods To Explore Environmental Justice, Clare Saunders, Daksha Patel

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Environmental justice is multi-faceted. It is distributional, procedural and context inter-dependent. Achieving environmental justice therefore requires transdisciplinary thinking and collaborative practice with participants holding a variety of experiences and knowledges. This paper explores the different meanings of environmental justice in theory, and through artistic practices. It introduces and evaluates a series of creative workshops designed to enhance understanding of environmental justice. The workshops consisted of 1) image-informed co-created cross-national Zoom conversations; 2) using colours and shapes to tease out meanings of environmental justice; and 3) mapping local environmental injustices while centring more-than-humans. It proposes that these creative methods are useful …

Understanding Clay And Its Media Properties Through The Expressive Therapies Continuum, Anne Geisz

Art Therapy Counseling Final Research Projects

For centuries, clay has been used by civilizations to hold food, memories, and records of history. To this day, it is used by engineers, hobbyists, artists, art therapists and many more. This art based, heuristic study explores clay through the researcher’s ongoing practice with the material, within the framework of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) and examines how its unique media properties make it such a versatile material for both ceramic artists and art therapists. Results exhibit these unique media properties and clay’s ability to reach all levels of the ETC through collected data of images, journals, critiques, and notes. …

Leg, Veronica L. Storc

Graduate Artistry Projects and Performances

Legs suggest stability. Leg alone is more precarious. Thus, “Leg: versus “legs” is an homage to the delicate balance of navigating life’s ambiguity. To be human, is to exist within a span of time, witnessing and participating in change. Yet, much of one’s internal experience goes unseen. The pieces within Leg translate nebulous inner contemplations into abstracted figures, serving as portraits of the emotional self. It is informative to reflect on the elements of our experience that exist beyond mundane demands.

False Eidetic, Zach Sockol

Student Projects

Do memories still exist if they are forgotten?

Memories define the soul. They are created to outlast the experience, but what is left behind? A moment in time captured with the lens of the mind, it is intangible. These memories shape our worldview, our thoughts, our reality. It is the culmination of these experiences that makes us who we are, yet through reminiscence, those moments are viewed so clearly in your mind that to you it is the truth, only to hear someone else remember it completely differently. Does this mean our memories aren’t real? Will we ever be able …

Generations, Jayla Watkins

Student Projects

Understanding your family can be the starting point of understanding your personal identity. Coming of age, you begin to view your family members as individuals as opposed to their titles of “Mother” or “Grandmother” names that once seemed to elude that she possessed some sort of supernatural power. As Jayla Watkins looks across 3 generations of her family, she sees different versions of the same person affected by life experiences, environments, and choices. Some oddly similar and some worlds apart. Understanding the generations of woman before her helps inform the woman she is becoming.

With influences such as Deana Lawson …

I'M Not A Robot, Dean Krueger

Graduate Artistry Projects and Performances

My dystopian short film "The Ballad of Viktor GRC-01" seeks to tap into the essence of animation as a humanist art form, a distorted mirror to reality rendered in pencil. The mark making and compositions more closely resemble German expressionist woodcuts, or early 20^th century comic strips with stark contrasting monochromatic ink blotches and screen tones.

Character dynamics are implied through staging and body language as opposed to dialogue, and based off the assumption of the audience being willing to fill in their own gaps of meaning in the ambiguity, not dissimilar to a receptive audience to abstract modern …

Coarse-Work: An Investigation Into The Impact Of Materiality In The Interior Educational Setting, Isabel G. Robb

Honors Theses

Education design in modern suburban America curates learning environments that are cold and impersonal, being used more as a place to keep youth during the day than as a place where they can truly learn about and understand the world around them. This learning environment does not suit all students, especially those with learning disabilities, and it leaves little room for flexibility in classroom usage.

Focusing on creating a learning environment where all students feel welcome and are able to effectively learn, this projective design research project aims to provide a comprehensive intervention through the built environment and interior design, …

Researching & Designing Marketing Materials For Rachel Messer & Connor Dale, Isabelle Bauer

Honors Projects

Isabelle Bauer’s Honors Project, “Researching and Designing Marketing Materials for Rachel Messer and Connor Dale” is split into two components. First, the research paper titled "The American West as a Cultural Phenomenon" explores the fascination with the American West and its integration into various aspects of American culture, particularly in music, film, and art. The essay discusses the historical significance of the West and its transformation into a cultural obsession. Focusing on the resurgence of Western aesthetics in modern country music, the project’s second component involves the creation of marketing materials for country artists Rachel Messer and Connor Dale.

The …

Fast Fashion, Luxury Fashion, And Their Sustainability Efforts, Danielle L. Illum

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

The apparel industry can be divided into two categories, fast fashion, and luxury fashion. It’s no secret that the apparel industry has a negative impact on our world in terms of sustainability, greenwashing, pollution, and human rights issues. Although the entire apparel industry plays a role in this, fast fashion seems to be at the forefront of these issues. It is necessary to understand the growth and consumer obsession with fast fashion in order to grasp its negative impact. In the same way, understanding the importance of luxury fashion to the consumer, along with the strides being made by luxury …