Painting Commons^™

Artistic Representation And Self Esteem, Brianna Davis

Honors College Theses

Dependent upon the constructs of the perception of self and the viewpoint of others, humans base the value of their self esteem on outer perspectives rather than internal ones. For this thesis in particular, the outer perspective to be examined is representation in the field of the arts. This thesis project explores the process of self esteem, artistic representation in the arts, how one affects the other, a history of the correlation between the two, and ways to inform and educate the masses with the tools necessary to advance representation in the arts thus raising the self esteem of its …

Insulin Is My Fuel, Jean Paul Vivas

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The assertion that moments of play empower individuals to find balance amidst the tension of creation and destruction is a central tenet of my artistic philosophy. Through the expressive medium of painting, I have discovered that playfulness can serve as a responsive process that facilitates a flexible approach to coping with the complexities of identity, ideology, and morality. This fertile ground for creativity has become a means of defining a sense of life that is informed by my ongoing struggles with a diabetic medical condition. As my body's dependency on insulin necessitates a constant movement between the frustrations of daily …

In A Small Sea, Thomas Giebler

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

A pool of water stands before you. It is nebulous and free flowing. As you peer in, you realize how vast and deep something initially so unassuming on the surface has become.

This is my small sea.

Within this sea that rests between my ears, I am a small ‘c’ creator. This body of water is filled with experiences, inspiration, and vision. In this place, I synthesize the world around me into my work, creating microcosms that are full of life, color, and story. The idea of microcosms is the cornerstone of my design.

Within each of my created worlds, …

Forbidden Female, Kailin Nielsen

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The historical, political, and sexist stereotypes of the female narrative in society have produced an unrealistic and commoditized persona of what it means to be a female. My artwork narrates my relationship with the female body in an authentic and bold depiction. Women have been forbidden for thousands of years to define their narrative and be able to use their voices. I’m proud to be a female, and I show this by size, color, and texture through my artwork.

After the overturning of Roe V. Wade in 2022, I was confused and conflicted with the legislative rights pertaining to the …

Tree Line, Eric Joseph Jensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I was raised under a doctrine of extreme truth that cast a shadow over all reality. Upon rejecting that dogma, my life became a search to replace that truth. I’ve looked for it by immersing myself in the natural world and exploring my relationship with it through paint. My landscape painting practice has brought me a wealth of experiences; however, it has not given me an answer that fills the void of my upbringing. My thesis paper is an account of the questions, research, and paintings that surround my search. Nothing, it turns out, is absolute. There is a beauty …

Rabbit Hole, Olivia Wiebe

Scripps Senior Theses

Rabbit Hole explores an alternate reality which erupts within moments of insomnia, and posits it as a place of self-discovery. Though this Rabbit Hole is a personal one, the work implies that these worlds can be found within any person when they are alone. Digital spaces have become tools of absolute availability and distraction, capitalized on by companies who profit when our eyeballs are stuck to our screens. However, cyberspace was once dreamed of as a place of self-discovery and experimentation. Rabbit Hole is an attempt to reclaim digital space, and turn towards ourselves within technology. These individual “Rabbit Holes” …

An Exploration Into Public Art, Samantha Fazio

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores both the processes of designing and creating a mural and the community impact of public art. It aims to answer questions including: What goes into creating a mural? What is public art and why is it important? How does it socially and economically impact the community and its members? In doing this project, I aimed to gain a deeper understanding of how to create a mural and of the greater cultural context that public art projects exist in.

Graphic Design & Painting, Emily Zepp

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Starting with the desire to explore the connection between GD and painting, I realized the only difference between the two is the context in which the work is created. Both graphic design and painting seek to impart messages upon the viewer and explore a certain perspective. Success can be measured in both disciplines by the effectiveness of the communicated message.

Symbols In Sketchbooks, Diana Rice

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My installation is an expression of the sketchbook in the sense that it is an object bound by time. Specifically, it is the assemblage of time, cognition, and the materiality of the sketchbook. The installation consists of various sized papers interlinked by tied thread. On the papers are drawings and sketches arranged in proximity to other sketches that are the inspiration or iteration of one another. Thus, a web of evolution is created. This project is an exploration of how images are created and evolved, such as symbols, and how the material construction and physical presentation of the installation affects …

The Project Of Hope: Middle Eastern Feminism In Controversy, Alla Myzelev

Art History

No abstract provided.

Expanses, Austin J. Buchanan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This document will explain the nature of Austin Buchanan. This will go over the ideas, process, the executions, and the theories of my artwork. Explaining the ideas of space within, on, and around (outside), the picture plane.

The work included focuses on how a manipulated 2D surface evokes an experiential reaction. This manipulation enhances the actual experiences of real space that happens once someone becomes an observer of a 2D artwork and the conceptual idea of window space. This work challenges the ideas of the traditional picture plane illusion and the Flatbed surface or “Flatness” by expanding the picture plane …

Celebrating Mundane Moments, Meidi Karampourdashti

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

I feel appreciation for life and recognize the beauty of being present in the moment, not only living for a future goal. I paint moments that highlight shared slices of life that are common throughout many contemporary cultures. The theme of my paintings is to celebrate mundane moments with images living them, regardless of their geographical location. I am pausing the moments representing what appears over and over through life, reminding myself I can enjoy all of them. This body of work slows down to focus on the beauty of a moment’s essence spent with family members or friends and …

Utility Lines, Carolyn Hartwell

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The paintings included in this Thesis Exhibition explore the theme of fragility that retains quiet strength. Combining delicacy with tenacity is how I arrived at the name of the exhibition, Utility Lines. A utility line transfers energy and is vulnerable to both weather and accident; the fragile materiality is the weakness inherent to functionality. In my work, I am deciding how much responsibility for the stability of a composition can be carried by the most tenuous elements. I test how much of the emotional and compositional load of a painting can be born by muted colors, awkward shapes and unsteady …

Fourpaintingsomedrawingsandaprintbehindapillar, Sam R. Brown

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My work is about the interest of communication and visual story telling through the mediums of drawing and painting. This comes from my earliest artistic education through comics. My exposure to comics has informed my decisions on composition and visual language. The reason why I chose to work with this in mind is because I see a general lack of this sort of visual storytelling in contemporary art. The process of telling stories through visual media is something that had been done for millennia. Through my work I wish to take this issue and utilize it to a contemporary viewer. …

Arts 3103 Painting I, Marc Mitchell

All Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Deadly Snow: Meditations On Muriel Rukeyser, Andrei Tarkovsky, And The Pandemic Era, Nicole Lawrence

Critical Humanities

The following personal essay meditates on Appalachian fatalism and its relationship to vaccine and mask hesitancy. The analogous relationship between ecological destruction and uncertainty with the exploitation and abuse of the body serves as a waypoint to explore Appalachia’s larger dismissal towards “protection” during the pandemic. Included are original art pieces that serve to intertextually converse with Rukeyser’s activism, West Virginia’s aesthetic schism between industrial catastrophe and symbols of prosperity, and Tarkovsky’s imagery of desolation and hope.

Review Of A Revolution In Canvas: The Rise Of Women Artists In Britain And France, 1760-1830, By Paris A. Spies-Gans, Gabrielle Stecher

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Paris A. Spies-Gans, A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760-1830 by Gabrielle Stecher

No Canvas, No Rules, Francisca B. Ugalde

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This presentation activity is a creative exploration of the concept of DIS-EASE, as in the absence of ease, uneasiness, or discomfort.

Conceptually, I am exploring DIS-EASE in three ways:

1. As you can see, I am painting directly onto the gallery wall. As the keeper of these galleries, I can assure you that this is a big no-no. I mean how dare anyone disturb these pristine surfaces?! The rationale behind my discomfort is rooted in the idea that the gallery is a sacred space, and that these walls ought to be kept pristine so that the objects displayed against them …

Terminally Ill Documents: The Lasting Impact Of Ephemera, Deama Khader

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Murals and portraits of cultural icons such as George Floyd and Ahed Tamimi are more than aesthetically engaging objects. They can inspire viewers to act, attend protests, and share their own feelings on an issue, whether that be in the form of more street art or something as simple as a social media post. This is often how social and political movements are made.

Street art poses a unique challenge to information professionals since the documents that are created with the intention or expectation of disappearance. They are documents suffering from terminal illness. Their ephemerality is their disease. Per the …

Elevating The Queer Body, Grant Mahan

Graduate Theses

Elevating the Queer Body is an art based exploration in removing objectification in the visual consumption of my own queer body. Throughout this thesis, I explain the experience of queer objectification, and how to overcome it through abstraction in a painting practice. This research comprises spiritual ideologies, as well as the history of abstraction, to inspire me in creating an ethically consumed representation of my figure. This is achieved through an abstract depiction and veiling of my figure. Presented compositions are overlaid with Islamic inspired devotion and ornamentation as a form of elevating the body itself.