Art and Design Commons^™

Uncovering The Story Of Sally Maria Johnson: Revealing The History Of The Portrait Of A Painting, Yuanzhen Song

Art Conservation Master's Projects

Portrait of Sally Maria Johnson by the artist James Johnson is a 19^th century oval shaped portrait in the collection of the Buffalo History Museum.  It suffered from structural damages and paint loss resulting from surface alterations and previous restoration campaigns.  This study combines art historical research with scientific analysis to explore both the biography of the subject and the materiality of the painting.  Through local research including historical newspaper articles in Buffalo, the story of Sally Maria Johnson (the wife of Buffalo’s first mayor) was uncovered.  High-resolution imaging techniques were used to document the surface condition and identify …

Shadow Garments: Costume Creation For Integrating Alienated Parts Of The Self, Mega M. Galvin

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

This study explores costume creation as a narrative-based intervention for integrating "shadow" parts, or aspects of the self that are repressed or alienated due to shame, trauma, or social pressure. Grounded in Jungian analytic psychology, narrative therapy, and expressive arts theory, the research addresses the limitations of traditional talk therapy in accessing somatic memory and proposes costume making as a pathway for externalization and re-authorship. Using a qualitative, participatory study inspired by Pat B. Allen’s Open Studio Process, four adult participants engaged in a three-session workshop to design, construct, and wear costumes representing their identified shadow aspects. Data was collected …

Refereed Research - Health Is The Greatest Wealth: A Research Agenda For Subsistence Marketplaces, Samanthika Gallage Dr

Subsistence Marketplaces

Health is a major challenge for people who live in subsistence because poverty heightens exposure to disease and weakens access to care. Yet it has received limited and fragmented attention in subsistence marketplaces research. Health decisions are made within the same trade-offs, uncertainty, unfamiliarity and relational exchange that shape other subsistence consumption. At the same time, health also goes beyond other mundane consumption decisions: it demands abstract causal reasoning, carries heightened vulnerability, and depends on information and trust that consumers cannot easily verify. Therefore, this paper argues that health should be treated as a core area of study in subsistence …

Dr. Septimus Primus Rice Portrait Correspondence To Barbara Morgan, Director Of Student Housing, Oct. 8, 1991, William Lindsey Mcdonald

Correspondence

Correspondence from William Lindsey McDonald to Barbara Morgan, the director of student housing, regarding the history of the painting of Dr. Septimus Primus Rice that hangs in Rice Hall. More information about President Rice's contributions to the Florence Wesleyan University, an early predecessor of the University of North Alabama, is also contained within the letter.

The letter also details a brief history of the paintings of LaGrange College that were once hanging in the halls of LaGrange Hall, prior to its demolition (2023 - 2024) and subsequent reconstruction (2026). The current location of the painting is unknown.

It Takes A Village -- An Homage To Florida's Ecosystems And Biodiversity, Noah R. Bastien

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

It Takes a Village is a drawing highlighting the biodiversity of Florida's native wildlife. The included species encompass plants, animals and fungi found in Floridian ecosystems. The swamp panel is an homage to the Florida Highwaymen, and several of the chosen species hold personal symbolism to my upbringing in central Florida and time spent with my grandparents on the Indian River in Brevard County. The species depicted in the drawing are as follows (from left to right, top to bottom): the grey triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), Florida mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), tropical water-clover (Marsilea ancylopoda), Florida …

Swallowtail Plant And Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail, Lillian G. Witherspoon

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

This mixed-media, artistic representation displaying both the Swallowtail Plant and the Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly visualizes the shared similarities in both pattern and shape. Christia obcordata, commonly known as the Swallowtail Plant or Butterfly Plant, gets its name from its wing-shaped foliage and burgundy stripes that resemble the swallowtail butterfly.

Sea Urchin, Lilli Hendra

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Sea urchins are echinoderms that live in the ocean and can be found in most climates. The support structure that encloses the internal organs in sea urchins is called a test, which is an endoskeleton composed of calcium carbonate and has five-fold radial symmetry. On the shell there are ambulacral plates that have small pores for the tube feet of the sea urchin. The raised bumps along the shell that help with joint movement are called tubercles. The oral and aboral views of the test are shown in the artwork. This piece is composed of individual dots that make up …

Who's Entitled?, Shawnelle Charles

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

This work continues my exploration of the oversexualization of women through the form of a mirror, or portal, designed to invite reflection and confrontation. I chose the quatrefoil shape, a four-lobed form commonly found in Gothic architecture, after researching historical window designs. Traditionally, the quatrefoil symbolizes harmony, fortune and protection, associations that contrast sharply with the lived experiences represented in this piece.

By framing the work in this form, I centralize women’s bodies and their experiences through the lens of the male gaze and the fetishization of female anatomy. The mirror becomes a site where looking is questioned: who is …

I Don't Have Enough Room To Stretch My Legs -- A Visual Exploration Of Black And Queer Identity, Elyas Rodney

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

My practice investigates the nuances of Black and queer identity, including my evolving relationship to Black girlhood and womanhood, honoring my Black and queer elders, and navigating the emotional and social dimensions of transitioning. Using sculpture, papermaking and relief printmaking, I create a physical representation of my fears and truths. I explore themes of cultural identity through a repeated visual motif printed on paper made from old middle school clothing. My process is multidisciplinary because the subject matter is multidimensional. The nuances of the Black and queer experience must be told in a queer way (as in 'strange' or 'unconventional'). …

Grita Por Los Que No Pueden, Harleen G. Pena

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Each line I carefully carve into wood or linoleum is another immigrant’s story I can share. I found my passion in printmaking. My artwork focuses on identity, cultural pride, and immigration. Coming from a long line of immigrants, this is a very personal and vulnerable topic. My work exposes the harsh reality of racism and the immigrant experience. Through my art, I advocate pride, solidarity, and perseverance. I also highlight the challenges our communities face. A strong notion in my work is compassion and humanity. I work with mostly relief, intaglio, and screen print. My mission is to be a …

United, Stephanie Cisneros

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

My work explores family, immigration, and identity through printmaking, using objects as vessels for memory and presence. I began this body of work while taking Intro to Printmaking, where I was introduced to the medium and encouraged to reflect on what stories I wanted my images to carry. Through lithography, relief, monotype, and screenprint, I use printmaking to document personal history and lived experience.

My family is from El Salvador. My parents immigrated to the United States in search of a better life and lived here for more than twenty years. During that time, my father carried his Salvadoran passport …

Repulsive Embrace, Rokibat Salako

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

This large woodblock print explores themes of sexual assault and trauma, as well as the societal stigma that accompanies it. The piece is comprised of visual metaphors implemented to tell a story. Due to the poor infrastructures put in place to help and support assault and rape victims, many people, especially women who have survived such heinous acts, develop a poor/beaten down sense of self, intense feelings of shame and guilt, and develop mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)/complex (C)-PTSD. Many of these women receive little to no help from their state or government, resulting in an even …

Pufferfish, Zoe Turner

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

This print series grew out of my frustration with having to push through intense period cramps while in class. It was often difficult to focus on my work while feeling as though my body was being torn open from the inside. Each month, I find myself questioning: Why am I expected to work like this? Menstruation is often accompanied by painful bloating and sharp, internal cramps, and I carry these sensations with me as I attend school, go to work, and move through daily life. In this series of prints, I use the pufferfish as a metaphor for this experience. …

Faces Of Hunger, Ronald Fish

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Weather, inhospitable conditions and war ravage many areas of the world. Even in the safest locations, sudden economic or political changes can leave previously prosperous individuals destitute and alone. People deprived of the basic necessities become desperate, exhausting all means to obtain food and basic medicine. When conditions worsen, disease spreads rapidly, reducing the likelihood of survival. The conditions people face are often inhumane and unsanitary. We should not stand by idly while people starve and are forced to drink unsafe water.

This piece challenges countries and individuals to ACCEPT that fellow humans are trapped in conditions they didn’t create; …

Talk, Listen, Talk, Brooklyn Heywood

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Using elements of nostalgia alongside contemporary technologies, my work explores the evolving ways we communicate with one another. Communication is fundamental to our humanity; through it, we share information, ideas and beliefs, and build understanding. Meaningful exchange requires both speaking and listening - an active effort from all sides. By pairing outdated methods of communication with current digital tools, I examine both the timeless nature of connection and the ways technology continues to reshape how we relate to one another in everyday life.

Artizein Arts And Teaching Journal Volume 11 (1), Darlene St. Georges

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Full Issue

Drawing Out Remarkable Communities, Bailey Ennig

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This visual essay examines how an unused classroom whiteboard evolved into a student-driven site of relational art and community building. Initially left blank, the whiteboard became a shared drawing space as students began to doodle informally, returning regularly to contribute and interact. Over time, these collective drawing practices fostered friendships, cross-grade connections, and a sense of belonging grounded in shared pop culture interests and creative play. Drawing on theories of relational aesthetics (Bourriaud, 2002), creative ecosystems (Harris, 2021), and connected learning (Ito et al., 2019), the whiteboard functioned as a dynamic social space shaped by student agency rather than teacher …

Metaphoring Visual Metaphors For Visual Art Research, Jeff Horwat

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

In Art Practice as Research, Graeme Sullivan (2005) advances a seminal argument for art making as a rigorous mode of inquiry capable of generating knowledge comparable to that produced within positivist traditions. He conceptualizes visual art research through a complex framework. To render this model usable, Sullivan introduces a braided metaphor that operationalizes the framework while implicitly demonstrating the generative capacity of visual metaphors to reshape theoretical constructs themselves. Building on this premise, this visual essay approaches Sullivan’s framework not as a fixed schema but as an open invitation for methodological experimentation.

Through a process of metaphoring—the conceptual melding …

The Humidity Of Living: Walking, Permeability, And Care As Embodied Research Practice, Lyndsay Mckay

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This visual-textual essay traces walking as an embodied research methodology situated at the intersection of autoethnography, material feminist theory, and practices of care. Drawing on nursing-informed sensorial attunement and site-responsive observation, the work follows a pedestrian route through urban and coastal landscapes to examine how bodies, infrastructures, atmospheres, and more-than-human matter co-produce perception. Through photographic documentation and poetic narrative, the project foregrounds permeability as a methodological stance—one that resists detached observation in favor of affective, relational, and trans-corporeal engagement. Concepts from Ingold’s correspondence, Alaimo’s trans-corporeality, Mol’s logic of care, and Benner’s embodied expertise are woven into lived encounters with decay, …

Fieldmaking In The Shaughnessy Village: Conducting Arts-Based Research In Response To Human Spaces, David J. Lerue, Marian Schurman, Keyiana Marques

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

What can human spaces teach us when we engage them in open-ended observation and artmaking? This visual essay shares the practices of three artist-teachers engaging in fieldmaking, an arts-based research methodology conjoining open-ended artistic inquiry, spatial theory, and fieldwork in Montréal’s Shaughnessy village, a densely populated, transient neighbourhood shaped by ongoing redevelopment and mixed-use infrastructures. Drawing on visual ethnography, research-creation, and place-based art education, we engaged the site through iterative cycles of walking, observing, making, and reflection, attuning to the specificities of space. The authors reflect on the implications of their process, arguing fieldmaking offered a flexible and generative approach …