Fine Arts Commons^™

The Darkness Is Passing, Grace Heeeun Park

CGU MFA Theses

My work is about the interplay of light, darkness and space. I express illumination of space and penetrating light with abstract painting. I use the white of canvas and thick application of black paint to create frames and to break rules of defined dimensions. Through my paintings, I challenge the perception of space and question the boundaries between two and three dimensions.

Gabriel Bizen Akigawa Interview, Joe Ondrey

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Gabriel Bizen Akagawa is the Assistant Director of Academic Advising and recently former Academic Advisor in the Office of Student Affairs and Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Sculpture department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He exhibits regularly as a Chicago-based artist. He has been awarded Artist-in-Residencies at the Alternator Gallery for Contemporary Art in Kelowna, British Columbia, at Crabtree Farm in Lake Bluff, Illinois, and at Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan. His curatorial projects include an ongoing and changing series he initiated in 2005 called “Faketure” (fake nature), which lead to founding the Faketure Consortium …

In Tub And Wig Out, Ryan Crowley

Theses and Dissertations

Using short stories, descriptions of objects and thoughts on process, I aim to establish a few ideas about the way I see and think through making in the studio.

Auto Tune, Dana Ollestad

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an overview of the source material, methodologies, artistic influences, and conceptual decisions that inform my artwork and characterize my art practice. Utilizing participation (audience, community, viewer), I engineer experiences and encounters for the general public. Whether through directed physical interaction or implicit reaction, I create open-ended situations or environments that I may influence, but not fully control. The democratic cede of authorial control, as well as the heightened risk and unpredictably in my work, instigates a more positive, non-hierarchical social model in which every viewer is an “author,” who produces content and communication signals, and has a …

Freedom Of Interpretation, Georgi Ivanov

Theses and Dissertations

The photographic series Ideal Cities that I started in 2011 is inspired by the conflict between my idea of the “west” and my evolving experience in the United States. What struck me was the popularity of what I see as model experience – a spatial experience controlled by the Spectacle. In the terms of the Situationist International and its most prominent figure Guy Debord, the Spectacle is the collapse of reality into the streams of images, products and activities sanctioned by centralized monopolist business or state bureaucracy. Thus, personal experience is replaced with preconceived notions, which control the way people …

Jacob Hashimoto Interview, Madeline Barnabee

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Jacob Hashimoto was born in Greeley Colorado 1973 and grew up in Walla Walla, Washington. He Currently lives in New York City. He received his Bachelors degree in fine arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Hashimoto “redefines Japanese screen painting with his assemblages of paper "kites" in undulating, interactive compositions.” Jacob is represented by Studio La Citta, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Galerie Forsblom and Mary Boone Gallery. – Bio from http://jacobhashimoto.com/bio-cv/

Between Utopia And Dystopia, Zhe Ren

Student Theses and Dissertations

I watch the city. I am fascinated by the swift change and goings on of metropolitan life. I think of it as a collective performance and exemplary of basic human nature. The urban space also frightens me because it is expanding so fast that it disrupts the relationship between human civilization and the natural balance. My work is an exploration of this coexistence between humans and nature. As populations continue to expand and energy becomes rare, we find new ways to cohabitate. While creating new life forms both naturally and scientifically, humans become parasitic to their surroundings. Population growth is …

White Sands, Laura Vitale

Theses and Dissertations

I’ve constructed a narrative thread that connects experiences, events, and artworks made during my time in graduate school. This narrative, which has the perspective of time, betrays the firsthand experience of wayfaring through the projects and places I describe. The narrative loosens as it approaches the present moment. Rather than to arrive at any conclusions, my goal for creating this narrative is to understand a tension between expectations: of systematic rationality and subjective knowledge, of play and display. I understand that my work productively fails to r-r-resolve contradictions about the way things are.

Display, Baldwin Amanda

Theses and Dissertations

I will discuss six art works that have a range of characteristics, but can all be unified through the notion of surface, both physically and conceptually. I will investigate how ideas of taste, assumption, collage, façade, figure/ground, display and value can all be seen through this lens. Much significance and symbolism is imbued in such a thin layer and I am actively aware of this as I work. The way I construct and render my subjects and the space in which they reside determines how they are viewed, perceived, considered, and judged by others.

Reflections On Sexuality, Sensuality, And Painting, Loie Hollowell

Theses and Dissertations

The written component of my thesis will take the form of an extended artist statement in which I discuss all six paintings included in my thesis exhibition. A major theme of my work is sexuality, specifically female sexuality. This thesis will begin by looking at the three miniature paintings that spearheaded the investigation of this theme. I will examine the generalized and personal feminist symbolism that these paintings contain. The two works that followed the miniatures are depictions of sexual interactions between my husband and myself. I will explain the significance of my depictions and relate them to the work …

Reckless Hope, Jesse Potts

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an approximation of several years spent in the studio. It represents an equitable exercise of memory and speculation.

The Dragons In Your Dreams, Jacquelyn Walther

Theses and Dissertations

What if every craving that you ever felt stayed with you forever? Suppose facades couldn’t exist, and what should only be the deepest, densest core of a desire was formed into a mass, a body. Its will matching yours in its physical presence. I make creatures that are embodiments of emotions. In this study I mainly focus on desires and inhibitions surrounding romance. I explore anatomical structures and how material make-up can directly reflect emotional character. In this exploration, the materiality of clay allows for a thorough manipulation of the composition of the creatures. In this I am also able …

Ed Lai Interview About Grace Lai, Thomas Matt

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Grace Lai painted downtown Chicago in concrete and steel bloom, for two decades producing vibrant montages of skyline-shaping buildings as they climbed. An "on-site" artist who didn't seriously take up painting until nearly 60 because of a promise made to her deceased husband, Mrs. Lai donned a hard hat and was unafraid to board construction elevators for rides high into the sky to complete her work. In winter she'd wrap herself in plastic garbage bags and substitute rubbing alcohol for water in her paints, so they wouldn't freeze.

Artist Bio taken from the Chicago Tribune (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-17/news/ct-met-0318-lai-obit-20100317_1_paintings-materials-train-stations)

To learn …

The Three Principles (For -2012), Nikolai Noel

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing alchemy as an allegory for the political, social, cultural history and present of the Caribbean, I discuss critical themes, approaches, methodologies their development, application and evidence in my thinking and art practice.

Religious Symbolism In Salvador Dali's Art: A Study Of The Influences On His Late Work., Jessica R. Hawley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Salvador Dalí was an artist who existed not long before my generation; yet, his influence among the contemporary art world causes many people to take a closer look at the significance of the imagery in his paintings. For the most part, Dalí is categorized as a Surrealist artist, yet in this essay, I also plan to explore other possibilities of influence that surrounded Salvador Dalí’s generation and inspirational background. Around 1941, Dalí’s work began to shift away from Surrealism and, instead, moved toward a more Classical style that contained many religious themes, a style which he called “Nuclear Mysticism” (Taylor …

"Ya'll Come Back" Continuing Arts And Crafts In Gatlinburg., Molly Noseworthy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a tourist town. I was born and raised in this area, and am currently employed at a ceramics shop in the historic Arts and Crafts Community. Due to this job, I have decided to research the importance of the town and crafts area. In this paper, I will present an overview of the history of the town and its art community, and also present an inside look at life and business in a tourist town. Although the Arts and Crafts Community has grown to be a tourist attraction, its roots still lie in the traditional handmade trades, …

Everybody Lies., Justin Doak

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Everybody lies. Everybody. The fact that everyone lies, however, is by no means a judgment; it is a good thing, a necessary thing. As far as I am concerned lying is the very foundation of our society. Nobody in the world tells the truth all the time, not because they are trying to be malevolently deceitful, of course, but out of necessity. Like the old adage says, the truth hurts. That is, in essence, the very heart of this body of work. Everyone tries so hard to not only convince others that the truth is a moral imperative, but also …

Float In Float Out, Jason Sabbides

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses Float In Float Out, his Master of Fine Arts exhibition held at The Slocumb Gallery, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee from March 19, 2012, to March 23, 2012. The work consists of paintings on canvas, panel, and paper and employs a variety of media ranging from traditional materials to spray paint. The painting sizes vary from 20x24 inches up to 48x96 inches and all hang directly on the wall, framed and unframed. Topics discussed in this thesis paper include the influences of the artist's military experience and travelling abroad as well as the influences …

No Place Like It - A Bfa Exhibition., Jacob Ingram

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, No Place Like It, held at Tipton Street Gallery, 126 Spring Street, Downtown Johnson City, TN, from April 2nd to April 6th. The show exhibit consists largely of drawings mostly done in graphite or charcoal, an installation piece, a quilt and found objects completed between the summer of 2010 and spring of 2012. The work uses family photos and Jackalopes to show the relationship to the artist as well as ideas about family, isolation, and identity.

American Made: Ansel Adams And The Bishop National Bank's "The Islands Of Hawaii", Lauren Walton

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.