Art Practice Commons^™

Trafačka: Young Artists In An Alternative Space (Life Of D.I.Y.), Dora Novey-Buttfield

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper documents the functions and internal structure of Trafačka, an experimental arts space located in the Prague 9 district. There is very little research on the presence and significance of alternative culture in Prague today, and the term itself is difficult to define. Using personal interviews conducted by the author and some background research on Czech alternative culture and spaces, the study highlights the stories of the residents and artists of Trafačka in light of the debate on alternative culture.

The author explains how Trafačka is an example alternative space and describes the complexities of being separated from other …

Female Flesh And Medieval Practice In The Later Middle Ages, Megan E. Marzec

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

My work explores the importance and presence of the female body in medieval religious practice as exemplified in medieval art, religious texts and hagiographies. My research shows that while the reasoning behind female imagery and imagery of the nude is disputed, the prevalence of mandorla-like images, images of the female nude, and images displaying the femininity of Christ suggest the meaningfulness to the medieval viewer. I discuss extensively Julia Kristeva’s writing on the woman as abject and the artistic experience as an element of religiosity. For this research I analyzed works by various artists including Robert Campin, Jan Gossaert and …

Circulating Collections Book Repair Manual, Marianne Swanberry Hanley

Treatment Manuals

The audience for this manual are work-study students and library technicians working charged with repairing items from our circulating book collection. Be careful because a repair done incorrectly can cause more harm than good if you are not sure don’t do it. Never be afraid to ask, no question is too small.

It is important to maintain control over your work. Work should be neat and organized. When new staff is hired they are trained by an experienced person and given manuals for reference. Each employee’s work is reviewed periodically to be certain that they understand the principles and techniques …

Platten En Perkament, Peter D. Verheyen, Marlene Hoogeveen (Translator)

Librarian Publications

Translation into Dutch for Handboekbinden (Journal of the Stichting Handboekbinden) by Marlene Hoogeveen of: Peter D. Verheyen. "Vellum on Boards" The Guild of Book Workers Journal 39 (2004). Vellum is arguably one of the most beautiful binding materials in use, and at the same time one of the least used in modern design bindings. While it is often used in limp bindings, its use “over hard boards” has been much more limited. A study of the bookbinding literature reveals it being covered in-depth to a larger degree in German language trade manuals than in English. This could explain their seemingly …

All That I Am Or Hope To Be, I Owe To My Angel, My Mother, Pamela Planera

All Student Theses and Dissertations

All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel, my mother. A quote that binds the relationship my mother and I will always have, through life, death and the paths I choose for my future to fulfill a promise. A promise I intend to keep and fulfill until we meet again… on the other side…

All dilapidated architectural buildings of my series are considered symbolic spaces. They become tangible - representing a venue of dreams where we become deeply affected, by our behavior, our environment, our society and ourselves. Each venue spawned an identity - it’s …

Preconciousness, Michael James Ripp

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Preconsciousness ... Explores the topographical model of the mind through the deconstruction of accepted realities. Blurring the boundaries of consciousness and unconsciousness. Embracing and accepting the abstract view of the mind as “realms” independent of each other. Surreal, yet familiar spaces and environments become a gateway to the preconscious and a deeper awareness. These unique spaces become a catalyst for a physiological journey to the unconscious. Complex views and interpretations of oneself and ones experiences come to the surface. Engaging memories and emotions such as anxiety ... joy… tranquility………manifesting as physical space as spaces become representations of unconscious. Minds are …

Downing, Joseph Dudley, 1925-2007 (Sc 2598), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2598. Letters from artist Joseph Dudley Downing, France, to Elinor Green (later Hunter), who worked for the United States State Department in Bern, Switzerland. They discuss their shared interest in art and discuss upcoming visits. Also includes letters from Joseph’s brother, Dero Downing, to Green discussing the possibility of donating artwork to Western Kentucky University.

Temporalities And The Drawn Response To The Conservation And Restoration Of Paintings, Brian Fay

Other resources

This paper will consider the temporal implications for drawing in the light of conservation and restoration treatments to paintings by the Seventeenth Century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

Using three critical frameworks: Norman Bryson’s becoming model for drawing and the relationship of liminality to a painting during conservation/restoration, George Didi Huberman’s anti-chronological reading of the detail and the pan in painting, and Walter Benjamin’s definitions of drawing the paper will seek to address some implications for a drawing practice that responds to a pre-existing museum artworks.

The paper will present some findings from my own drawing practice that responds to Vermeer’s …

The Mamluk Kaaba Curtain In The Bursa Grand Mosque, Sumiyo Okumura

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A Kaaba curtain is a door curtain which covers the door of the holy Kaaba, the most sacred site of Islam in Mecca. Upon the occasion of the conquest of Egypt and Hejaz by Sultan Selim I in 1517, Selim I donated a Kaaba door curtain to the Bursa Grand Mosque, one of the five most important mosques in the Islamic World. This Mamluk curtain is very different from Ottoman Kaaba curtains in both its shape and design motifs. It is noticeable that five fragments, including a piece of inscription, hang down from the upper border. We see a similar …

The Kanga, A Cloth That Reveals- Co-Production Of Culture In Africa And The Indian Ocean Region, Phyllis A. Ressler

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Kanga is one of Africa's least understood textiles. As a simple cotton, colorful, hand and machine printed cloth it embodies dynamic historical co-production of culture throughout African and Indian Ocean trade networks. Exploring African mercantile trade history, the coproduction and exchange of iconography, the diverse use and meanings of the Kanga, suggests a valuable discursive role for this textile. Despite its longevity of more than 150 years, its significant role in creation of identities, and its contribution to communication through design and social meaning, the Kanga, receives limited attention in textile research. Though seen by many as a simple …

The Parenthetical Notation Method For Recording Yarn Structure, Jeffrey C. Splitstoser

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Until now, describing yarn structure has been more art than science, especially for complex yarns and cordage like those encountered at Cerrillos, a Paracas (ca. 900-100 B.C.E.) site in the Ica Valley of Peru, where yarns and cordage frequently involve multiple colors, sub-structures, and materials (e.g., Image 1). My early attempts at describing yarn structures using notation were essentially undecipherable to others. Likewise, narrative methods proved too wordy and no less confusing. (For instance, a narrative description of the structure of specimen 2001-L185-B1654- S001, a rope-like yarn pictured in Images 2 and 3, would be: Twelve Z-spun-singly-ply yarns Ztwisted with …

The Twenty-First Century Voices Of The Ashanti Adinkra And Kente Cloths Of Ghana, Carol Ventura

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Craft production and use are continually adapting to meet the needs of consumers and the market in order to survive. The Adinkra and Kente cloths of Ghana are no exception, having maintained their visibility and viability by addressing changing and challenging economic and political realities. Fabric strips are sewn together to produce rectangular Adinkra and Kente cloths that are wrapped around human bodies in styles determined by gender and rank. These cloths are not only beautiful, but communicate as well. Old and new symbols representing proverbs, beliefs, and politics are woven into Kente and printed onto Adinkra cloths. Commemorative fabrics …

Queen Alexandra’S 1902 Coronation Gown, Donald Clay Johnson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Queen Victoria's wearing black mourning clothes for 40 of the 63 years of her reign prompted much discussion between fashion-setting Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra about what should the new queen wear for her coronation, the first state occasion in which they, as king and queen, could define taste and fashion for what was to become the Edwardian era. With such a long interval of time since the last coronation there were no strong expressions of traditional attire for such a ritual occasion which prompted the new king and queen to think expansively about the roles and functions the coronation …

Samplers, Sewing And Star Quilts: Changing Federal Policies Impact Native American Education And Assimilation, Lynne Anderson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Illustrating the U.S. federal government's changing policies on the assimilation of Native American children is the role of needlework instruction in the schooling of Indian girls. Described and discussed are three examples of 19th and 20th century policy, with emphasis on the textiles resulting from those policies. Early 19th century policy supported mission schools for Indians. Learning to sew was a valued domestic skill in 19th century female education, culminating in the making of a needlework sampler. This focus was adopted in mission schools, illustrated by Christeen Baker's 1830 sampler stitched at the Choctaw Mission School in Mayhew, Mississippi. Shortly …

Egan, Charlotte P. (Grider), 1920-2014 (Sc 2569), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2569. Letter of Charlotte (Grider) Egan, Sellersburg, Indiana, to Sue Lynn McDaniel and Sandra Staebell, WKU Special Collections Library and Kentucky Museum. She thanks them for publishing an article on her late sister, Dorothy Grider, in Landmark Report (Bowling Green, Kentucky) and comments on the recognition due her sister for her work as a commercial artist.

Elkin, Gwendolyn, 1916-2009 (Sc 2596), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2596. Holographic paper titled “Joel Tanner Hart” by Gwendolyn Elkin, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Biographical paper highlights Hart’s life, career and techniques as an sculptor.

Not Just A Symbol But A Status Symbol, Summer D. Winston

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I create art, not out of a deep understanding of the world around me, but out of a lack of one. Human psychology, motives, behaviors, stressors, intentions and identity are the themes that boggle me the most. Therefore, it is only natural that my work would be fueled by the questions these themes pose. In the past I sought to understand what pushes people to make certain choices and how can the world around us affect the formation of identity. Currently I wonder about identity in terms of what do people use to form and reinforce identity both real and …

Student Autonomy: A Case Study Of Intrinsic Motivation In The Art Classroom, Downi Griner

Theses and Dissertations

How might a curriculum based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) influence student motivation and art making in a 9th grade art classroom? The researcher devised a negotiated curriculum called The Master Artist Program based on the SDT theory of intrinsic motivation. The implementation of this curriculum was designed to explore the question of how a curriculum based on SDT theory would influence student motivation and art making in a 9th grade art classroom. This curriculum was implemented in a ninth grade art class on an optional basis for the course of nine weeks. The results of data analysis, illustrated by relevant …

Aha'aina, Tali Alisa Hafoka

Theses and Dissertations

In a Polynesian feast, food is a metaphor for the essence of Polynesian culture—giving without self regard. As Polynesian culture evolves, its aesthetic standard must necessarily change. Two seemingly conflicting essentials are necessary here for the survival of culture—the evolution of the cultural aesthetic, and the constancy of the culture's essence. One might consider as a metaphor the evolution of a tree through the seasons—though the foliage blooms, changes colors, dies and grows brittle, falls and regenerates, etc., the roots remain constant—ever nourishing the tree and ever supporting it and holding it up. As with the tree, the essence of …

Fashionable Art, Lacey Kay

Theses and Dissertations

My final thesis exhibition, Fashionable Art, opens up a link between art and fashion. I used clay as my primary medium to create hyper-realistic handbags in the style of Trompe l'oeil. I am interested in placing art in fashion settings and fashion in art settings. In the show, I placed many purses on pedestals for a gallery setting, in a glass case for a purse shop setting and also placed large photos in a fashion photo shoot setting. I am concerned with creating an environment that celebrates the handbag from just an accessory to an art object. By using …