Art and Design Commons^™

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 …

Dissonant Forms: Landscape, Nature-Love, And Art, Taylor F. Benoit

Masters Theses

As artists continue the long and storied lineage of Landscape, are there aesthetic responsibilities that come with representing the forces that afford you the capacity to do so? As we delineate spaces into places, endless interconnectivity into knowable “systems”, and living matter into thing based taxonomies, who do these delineations serve and with what intentions do we proceed? My studio art practice explores what it means to give form to our Former—the Former being that from which we came, the here and now, our explicit ecological reality, the stuff of what we call nature. …

What The Eyes See And The Mind Knows, Amanda Durig

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Every morning as I set out for a walk, my mind starts trailing off as my eyes scan my neighborhood; I begin to wander into a daydream, tuning in to the pictures that I paint in my mind, imposing what I am observing into a new possibility of reality. This exploration into the lives of others in this world is a breath of fresh air, a reprieve from the demands of daily life. I am inspired by the narrative that is unknowingly being written into the earth by my neighbors, intrigued by the solutions that they come up with for …

Wild Connections, Sarah Huttner

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My work is about the variety of relationships occurring in nature, whether it is the small delicate touch of a bumblebee landing on a flower to collect pollen, or the struggle between native and invasive plants fighting for survival in the prairies. “Wild Connections” is a visual response to learning about the inner workings of various ecosystems and placing emphasis on those which I find deserving of more awareness. Using traditional and experimental printmaking methods, I capture the relaxing elegance of the habitats and simplistic beauty of their creatures to place emphasis on their importance in our environment. Occasionally subtle …

Darwin Or Frankenstein?, Sylvia S. Santamaria

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through sculpture and drawing, I create my own versions of natural specimens primarily based upon the visual unity of disparate organisms. Invented specimens are composed using a variety of processes employing a mixture of atypical materials following the (20^th, 21^st century) Postmodern shift away from formalist and traditional uses of any singular medium. As well as a variety of art materials, the specimens are hybrids of organic and biomorphic elements, blurring boundaries between botanical, animal, fungal, metal, and mineral. Is my approach perhaps like Charles Darwin, observant and studious naturalist, or am I more like Dr. Frankenstein, …

Discovering Wonders And Tragedies, Mackenzie Sayre Josephine Wardell

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Discovering wonders of the weather and the ever changing plant life in the Northeast, and tragedies about how disrespectful and selfish humans are towards the environment;My senior project is showing my viewers how exciting and diverse the natural world is and how necessary it is to recognize the destructiveness of plastic and our single-use culture.

During this past year, I’ve spent my time collecting from, observing, and recreating the natural world. I’ve experimented with new mediums such as cyanotype printing, which is brought to life by exposure to sunlight, and I’ve delved into my curiosities about the world of trash …

Parlance, Carolyn Mcintyre Norton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The richly-colored screenprints displayed in Parlance are explorations into sound-inspired imagery created through the blending of two divergent approaches: 1) drawing made by meditative inspiration and 2) printing driven by the execution of a predetermined plan.

Considered representationally, each print is a chorus of layered interpretive drawings of natural sound. My intent is to bring into view ethereal concepts through responsive mark making.

Considered technically, the printing process employs a predetermined set of formulas that produce a mathematically-finite set of prints. This systemized method causes common visual elements to disperse among the prints, resulting in a set of uniquely layered …

Liminal Surfaces, Georgina E. Grenier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The poet Ben Okri wrote: “Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the individuals and nations.” (Stibbe)

In the early 21st Century we are facing numerous environmental problems that are being caused by human activity. This era is termed the Anthropocene , a time when accumulated pollutants are causing detrimental ecological change. Ocean creatures are threatened by increasing seawater temperature, acidifying pH levels and melting ice. On land we are experiencing droughts, alteration of biomes, extinctions and an atmosphere that contains less oxygen per breath than …