Printmaking Commons^™

A Pursuance Of Self, Kassidy Albert

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The self portrait is a consistent aspect of art history, with many artists returning to it again and again across their lives. This project intends to explore the function of the self portrait. Through research and execution of artwork, the artist has found that the self portrait has multiple functions, including: a practice of anatomy; a display of status, skill, and likeness; an outlet for emotion; and a place for psychological confrontation. Across the life of this project, the artist completed twenty-two self portraits in a variety of styles and materials.

Color Nirvana, Elizabeth Thomas, Chai Avery

P-12 Lesson Plans

In this art lesson for grades 6-12, students will consider how color reads differently depending on chromatic surroundings and experiment with color scheme arrangements to create their own linear collage with adhesive-backed papers. This lesson is based on the exhibition NIRVANA, Polly Apfelbaum displayed at the Zuckerman in the fall of 2023.

Beyond The Veil, Noah S. Constantino

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

The philosophy behind my work is accented by this process in the sense of its micro-complexity. The idea of reshaping a flat surface to mimic complex topography coincides with the question I’ve been asking myself throughout making this work: What is outside of our structured and contrived reality and what does that look like? The complexity of depth within the process and the constant re-evaluation of the surface of the print is a parallel attempt to answer this fundamental question. To answer this, the fear of the unknown will always be present, but we must not let its complexity distract …

Movement, Mechanization, And Coexistence, Yukyung Chung

Masters Theses

A movement is a tool that expresses the subject I pursue, ‘mechanization of human beings’. There are many technologies that replace humans these days, such as artificial intelligence. This makes me skeptical and afraid of being replaced as an artist in the future. Paradoxically, people, including myself, are enthusiastic about it, indicating that we do embrace the mechanization process as a society.

I will reveal this phenomenon of coexistence by demonstrating the possibility that machines cannot replace us, through motion experiments where rules increase, first starting with the reliance on intuition. I will explore not only the things that machines …

Tracing As Process, Lesley Su

Masters Theses

Tracing is a way to observe, document and translate, to be anchored in the physical working, to find personal occupancy in the built environment.

By establishing one-to-one relationships with the physical context, tracing enables us to comprehend objects in multiple dimensions. Through tracing, we can explore how two-dimensional drawings can be transformed into three-dimensional objects, and vice versa, objects can be documented through drawing to capture the essence of reality.

Based on materials and motion, research on tracing techniques guides me into how tracing could act as a process of art and architecture practice.

A Room Full Of Pigeons And Three Spectators, Dina Khorchid, Dina Nazmi Khorchid

Masters Theses

My work explores themes of identity politics, domesticity, land and memory access - in relation to my own lived experiences as a Palestinian refugee, a daughter of a missing war casualty and an artist.

In this thesis book, I present a cumulation of thoughts, emotions and findings, along with a selection of works from the last two years.

During my time at the Rhode Island School of Design, messenger pigeons took over my studio, channeling physical and mental realms of grief and remembrance. By looking closely at the bird’s aesthetics and behaviorisms in my first semester, their resting deceased bodies …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

Translational Placemaking: The Diasporic Archive, Alia Varawalla

Masters Theses

Globalization and mass migration has propelled a hybrid existence, as individuals that occupy multiple geographies we live in a constant state of translation. Our museums and cultural institutions are in opposition to this; static, preserved and de-contextualized. At the intersection of printmaking and architecture, this thesis proposes a living archive to document the collective migratory journey across sites, materials, and hybrid identities. A network of centers for knowledge sharing and production centered on India and its diaspora. As art practices and people migrate, cultural production evolves with its context, gaining new meaning as it changes hands generationally and globally.

A Presence Of P____ And W__Th, Riley Wilson

Masters Theses

This body of work examines the involvement of association as it relates to our cultural interpretations of natural phenomena. Flowers and animals, both real and imagined, have been used as symbols for human morality since the beginning of human history. Two sources with which I drew inspiration from are medieval bestiaries and the Victorian practice of flower language. By combining elements from these references, I aim to pair this idea about the human need for classification with my own considerations about my identity. In combination, I also aim to highlight the responsibility that is intrinsic to curiosity. When faced with …

Metaphors In Materials And Imagery For Self Reclamation And Empowerment, Janice Lardey

Masters Theses

As an experimental multidisciplinary artist, my creative process draws inspiration from daily experiences and encounters with the mundane. I am particularly interested in West African textile cultural practices, specifically the use of symbols and basic geometric forms to communicate through materials (specifically fabrics) and the role these images and forms play in African culture. In my work, I am developing my own distinct vocabulary of symbols and patterns, inspired by these practices.

My artistic practice explores a wide range of themes related to women, sustainability, loss, everydayness, wear and tear, degeneration, the transitory nature of life, and material effects, often …

One More Time, I Love You —— 我有所念人，隔在远远乡, Jingjing Yang

Masters Theses

"One More Time, I Love You ——我有所念人，隔在远远乡" is a thesis project that delves into the profound nature of "obsession," which surpasses the boundaries of life and death, as well as the mortal world and the underworld. The interpretation of this type of obsession varies among individuals, and my understanding of it originates from the traditional Chinese myth concerning the afterlife journey. According to this myth, upon departing from the mortal realm, the deceased traverse the Bridge of Helplessness, cross the Forgotten River, peruse their past, present, and future lives on a Three Lives Stone, and then partake in the Soup …

Rotten And Falling, Khwanchira Chindamanee

Masters Theses

Abstract

I am an artist printmaker fascinated by the theme of impermanence as manifested through the cycle of birth, aging and death. Death is not the end of the cycle, however. Death begets transformation, via decay, of one form into another or perhaps others.

During my time at RISD, I received a scholarship to study Japanese paper making in Iowa. The experience was transformative for both my printing and soft sculpture. Later, I learned about mycelium, and began incorporating this living element into my work.

This thesis reflects on my primary source of artistic inspiration, the hup taem murals of …

Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem

Masters Theses

“This is the good washing, this is (the washing) which separates the dirty body from the pure body. This is like silver mixed with lead, it is separated from it by this (process): one makes for it a cupel of bones, which is what is called the “head of the dog” and of which the common name is kūja-which is the crucible—and this must be made of burnt bones. One melts the silver in it, one gives it a strong fire: the cupel will absorb and receive the lead, the fire will make its subtle (part) fly away and extirpate …

I Buried The Fireworks Under The Tree, Sihan Zhu

Masters Theses

Unreachable memories always surround me. I've been trying to extract logical parts from my chaotic memories, hoping to find a connection with the world within the soundless, intangible black fireworks stored in my retina under the grand fireworks display. When I first encountered intaglio printmaking, I impulsively drew subconscious memories on the plate, arranging them along some chaotic storylines. Gradually, I realized that I needed to create my own logical structure. So I started using specific visual symbols and repeating them, using the repetition of the printmaking process to search for logical clues. Printmaking with its special rhythm allowed me …

Objects And Apparitions: A Portable Museum, Yesuk Seo

Masters Theses

My work transcends the boundaries between painterly printmaking and sculpture. Through hand-pulled silkscreen prints, I create abstract pixelated images depicting our constantly changing relationship with meaning and reality. Memories are often glamorized and distorted whether it is our childhood home, our neighborhood, or the city. My practice archives my family history and traces patterns in memory and space by using invisibility as a phenomena to render newer explorations of abstraction, in time and in urban landscapes. Objects & Apparitions: A Portable Museum, pairs moiré patterns of ghostly printmaking with wooden objects in specific arrangements. It captures my nomadic journey between …

Step 10, Jinhong Cai

Masters Theses

Step 10 is an experiment on provoking empathy through

abstracted elements within my studio practice. I am

proposing to craft an emotional piece without leaning

on my identity. This written thesis consists of two parts:

narrative prose and an explanation of my studio practice.

While the installation is entirely devoid of cultural or

personal references, this text-based thesis is full of them

because it is intended to inform whoever is interested in

learning more about the motive behind this creation.

The questions I bought into the thought and creation

process are: Can a piece of art still successfully bring

out …

Recipes For Building Relationships, Adriana Lintz

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the history of women's access to education and the issues of gender disparity in education. I focus on single-gendered schools as I write from personal experience to describe the benefits for individuals in single-gender educational systems. I cite conflicting research on how men and women learn regarding biological, cognitive, and developmental differences. I illuminate some of the benefits of single-gendered education through research, experience, and personal communications. I write about the controversies and disparities regarding education and single-gender schools. I document research on the issues women face in education and the politics of women’s bodies and minds …

Eco-Interoception: What Plants, Fungi And Protista Have Taught My Body, Sara Riley Dotterer

Art Theses and Dissertations

To me, ecology is the relational, full-body awareness that I am made up of and deeply connected to everything around me; and for better or worse, this is reciprocal. I form ecotones, an ecological transitional zone between two ecosystems, with the world around me. I use this ecotonal lens to blur binaries and dissolve boundaries between me and the world “outside my body.” During my Masters of Fine Arts at Southern Methodist University, I have continuously explored and represented the lives of various more-than-human species outside of my body, including plants, fungi and protista through an ecotonal lens. Although these …

The Hospitality Of Doubt, Ian Grieve

Art Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the last two years of research toward a Master of Fine Art in Studio Art. I mainly address my painting practice, but while in the program, I have worked in collage, ceramics, intaglio printmaking, and sculpture. My paintings are thick, multilayered, and often contain ambiguous narratives. The pictures develop through engagement, openness, and response within the work. I seek and embrace connection with viewers of the work. The spectator ‘completes’ the art and enhances or alters the artworks meaning by observing it and applying their individual perspectives. I seek to incorporate a sense of nostalgia and familiarity. …

Eve Leaving The Garden, Norma L. Colby Ms.

LSU Master's Theses

This body of work serves as an investigation into the concepts and burdens that, as a female millennial, impact me regularly. As the door to my education closes, I turn to a much bigger world with endless possibilities and responsibilities. With these overwhelming prospects, I find myself reflecting on how our society has progressed and worsened to arrive here today. I continue to question the passing down of systemic burdens, politics, and gender roles of women in the 21^st century. Eve Leaving the Garden is a collection of textile works, photographs, and sculptures that serve as an exploration of …