Art and Design Commons^™

Anamnesis, Kristian Thacker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

My work examines the duality of living in Appalachia and cherishing its picturesque environment; while being complicit in its ongoing destruction via industry and resource extraction. Composed of my own photographs and selections from the Farm Security Administration archives, this body of work presents a vision of the region that’s purpose extends beyond value judgments. Rather, it considers the manmade and natural environments of Appalachia holistically, each one integral to the experience and understanding of the other. Following the same aesthetic choices I make in my professional practice as a photojournalist, I blur the boundary between art and documentation. In …

At The Table, Payton Olivia Brown

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written document is the accompanying thesis for my Master of Fine Arts exhibition, At the Table. This document, as well as my artwork, investigates the profound impact that food has on one’s life by strengthening connections with others, upholding traditions, and cherishing memories. It also elaborates on the inspirations, research, and experimentation utilized in the process of creating the exhibition. Through an array of paintings, mixed media, and sculptural work, this exhibition is intended to depict my own personal experiences and memories in relation to food.

Although I am making autobiographical artwork, I am also trying to portray the …

Commonplace, Heather Lepp

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The paper as follows will explore the conceptual and aesthetic decisions behind my MFA thesis exhibition titled Commonplace. It will outline my personal history, philosophical outlook, and conceptual framework behind making utilitarian pottery to elevate daily experiences. It will also investigate my individual exploration into beauty in relation to the process of making my work. Formal considerations such as visual, tactile, and functional aspects of the work will be addressed. Sharing, gathering, and preparing food influences me as a maker, and being attentive inspires me to create utilitarian wares that are used as cherished tools to enrich daily life.

Floral Alchemy: Decorative Porcelain Tableware, Stacy Lynn Larson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis accompanies and addresses work shown in my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Floral Alchemy: Decorative Porcelain Tableware, at West Virginia University. Within this document, I address my research, inspiration, and process as I created the body of work shown in my thesis exhibition. My personal fascination with plants and flowers stimulates my research in the relationship between flora and humankind. Throughout history, plants have consistently had a deep impact on human culture as seen in mythology, language, ritual, art, and medicine. With an understanding of this historical context, I analyze my personal connection with flowers in …

Assessment Of Instrument Exploring Underwear Preferences Of Incontinent Geriatric Women In Assisted Living, Cassandra M. Stewart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Urinary incontinence is a urologic condition commonly occurring in geriatric individuals and often results in disability. This affects not only physical functioning, but also psychological and emotional implications. Prior research focused on prevention and using smart technology to improve the current products available to help manage urinary incontinence. Little research has been completed to examine the preferences of geriatric individuals and assess what they are looking for in incontinence products. The purpose of the study was to create an instrument to assess the individual preferences of older adults for these products in a community living environment. Research questions included: (1) …

Life Landmarks, Brian S. Morgenlander

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The research pertaining to my thesis shares the exploration of my identity that is manifested through the process of making ceramic sculptures. These sculptures are informed from the better part of a decade I spent traveling around the world which coincided with dealing with family issues. In both, my travels and time at home I continuously relied on others and in turn became stressed about things that I had no influence over. I highlight certain aspects of these experiences through my artwork as a way for me to channel the frustrations and ambiguities from these memories that are etched in …

Found And Fabricated, Molly S. Davis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

My MFA written thesis addresses work completed and shown in a thesis exhibition at West Virginia University as well as significant influences to my studio process. While my stated focus is sculpture, the work presented in the exhibition consisted of three sculptural pieces and two sets of prints. This thesis, along with the supporting exhibition, addresses my investigations into the physical properties and tendencies of materials and how that information can guide and inform a work of art. Physical characteristics of the materials such as color, texture, shape, and weight are emphasized and guide the creation of the works in …

Us Buyers’ Behavior Towards Social Sustainable Certificates, Mehnaz Fatima Monamy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Growing awareness of the fashion industry's environmental footprint in terms of water and chemical use, carbon emissions, textile waste, energy usage, and water pollution has focused international attention on sustainability issues in apparel industries. To showcase their commitment to sustainability, many fashion companies turn to certifications and accreditations from third-party organizations. These certifications and accreditations not only help improve a company's performance and marketability but also give them an advantage over their competitors. US textile buyers are also becoming more selective in their purchasing decisions, looking for high-quality products that are produced in a sustainable and socially responsible manner. This …

Bitter Sweet, Hanna M. Kesty

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written document is the accompanying thesis for my Master of Fine Arts Exhibition, Bitter Sweet. The exhibition featured traditional framed prints with sculptural accents that reveal brutally honest negative personal experiences, interactions, and emotions, paired with delicately cute aesthetics. My work embodies the necessity of personal artistic expression to process years of emotional repression. The prints and sculptures in the exhibition focus around a collection of insults and harsh comments coupled with feelings of loneliness and isolation. I allow personal vulnerability to show, to reinforce that these moments have molded and shaped who I am and will continue to …

Repercussions: The Pressure To Be Thin, Shuhan Liu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

My MFA thesis and supporting exhibition will highlight ceramics work I have created with the intention of dissecting the relationship between a soul and reality to convey the story of tension and anxiety and show it in a way that would let viewers identify with my discomfort and anxiety. The inspiration for my work came from the severe body anxiety that I faced that broke out during the three years of psychological stress caused by the pandemic. Using personal narratives as a starting point, I created object-based artwork that addresses the external pressures I feel to be skinny. As an …

Mechanisms Of Nourishment, Raymond Lloyd Brown Iii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis is a description and analysis of the ceramic work of Ray Brown. Included in this thesis is an explanation and defense of my work in my exhibition Mechanisms of Nourishment. It also unpacks the conceptual, technical, and formal aspects of the work.

The research explored in this written thesis discusses the relationship between the aesthetic and utilitarian components of pottery. From an analytical, iterative approach to form, I strive to isolate proportions that evoke a sense of volume and repetition. My references to Mid Century Modern and Streamlining Era design guide my efforts into dynamic mechanisms of …

Stil-Life, Yi Xiong

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis is the supporting documentation for Still-Life, my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition. I use handmade ceramic still-life objects to depict my specific memories and experiences about my life before and after the pandemic. Death, hope, time, and emotion are the themes explored in this exhibition.

This installation of ceramic sculptures not only recreates a historical moment in the pandemic but also captures the current times that we live in. It records the artist's life and time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The selection of still-life objects for the exhibition often has special significance on a personal, cultural, …

Foreigner, Cancan Huang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis serves as supporting documentation for Foreigner, my MFA Thesis Exhibition. This exhibition reflects my experience as a foreigner, a solitary Chinese man living in the United States. Through embodying my personal experience, my paintings question the relationship between individuals and society.

The exhibition is composed of a series of paintings that visualize my personal story as a foreigner living in an incompatible and unacquainted culture. By displaying imagery of myself and my family in frozen moments, the paintings draw viewers into a discussion about personal identity, life philosophy, and culture collision. The exhibition and this thesis expand …

In/Visible, Raymond Thompson Jr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

My MFA thesis and supporting exhibition focus on challenging the United States’ photographic archive that often left out African-American people. The work, through the use of appropriation and alternative photographic processes, disrupts America’s historical visual archive and notions that surround the white gaze. Through the unsettling of this visual space, new speculative narratives can be created to help imagine new futures. This work is the beginning of a process of mourning histories I have never known and reclaiming a place for myself and my family in the American landscape that is free of racial trauma.

Objects Of Communication, Tyler Stonestreet

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis is a description and analysis of the ceramic work of Tyler Stonestreet. This thesis includes images and a description for the thesis exhibition Objects of Communication as well as a discussion regarding the conceptual, technical, and formal content of the work.

Disquiet Depictions, Olivia L. Oddo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written document is the accompanying thesis for my Master of Fine Arts exhibition - Disquiet Depictions. Presented within the exhibition was a collection of paintings, ranging from acrylic to mixed media. As someone living with both anxiety and panic disorder the symptoms that I have experienced, as well as the coping mechanisms that I have practiced, all influenced the paintings displayed within this exhibition. Imagery included self-portraiture across a variety of emotional expressions felt during moments of sporadic fear and happiness, vibrant geometric patterns serving therapeutic purposes, and subtle medication symbolism. Collectively, these paintings provide a visual journey into …

Accumulation, Erin Mccarty

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written Thesis is the supporting documentation for Accumulation, a Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition at West Virginia University. This exhibition creates an environment in which a viewer can enter. This installation environment is created based on formal elements combined with fantastical elements from the imagination of the artist. The formal choices in the work provoke a positive otherworldly and whimsical response in the viewer. The environment is designed to provide relief from problems in the everyday world through patterns, forms, colors and surfaces. These elements are harvested from the natural world and recombined in a fantastical way. …

Living Tangent, Cornelius Alexander Hugo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

A living tangent is how I am known by many and how I have lived my life for some time. I think in tangents and my life and art seem to evolve through them. Everything I make is connected by multiple thoughts or tangent lines that run from something as simple as the color red, to the idea that I believe communism has invaded my family’s homeland. This then leads to the recollection of childhood games, taught to me by my family in Venezuela and the importance these games played in my psychological development and in my presence as an …

Roses & Thorns, Stephanie Alaniz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis has been created alongside the thesis exhibition shown in the Laura Mesaros Gallery at West Virginia University (displayed March 18th to March 22nd). The work presented consisted of drawings, bookmaking, and various forms of printmaking and collage. This body of work is meant to create an analysis of insecurities and body positivity we associate with our physical selves. This work is a collective experience that has been a collaboration with over 80 participants. The number of participants help to create a larger overall collective voice. By creating this collective voice, we can experience these feelings together and …

2.8: Designing Visitor Experience For A Narrative-Oriented Exhibition, Kseniia Leshchenko

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis proposes interactive visitor experience with social media and fake news references at 2.8 thesis exhibition at West Virginia University. 2.8 refers to the distance between the United States and Russia borders in the Bering Strait and suggests that switching a point of view helps conflicting groups find common ground. By designing a space in such a way that a visitor constantly faces an alternative point of view, which in this case represents my own, I investigate whether this experience contributes to the viewers’ outlook change. Another aim is to see whether adding interactive elements to a show improves …

A Timeless Ritual, Luke Thomas Doyle

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This written thesis is the supporting documentation for A Timeless Ritual, my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition. The exhibition seeks to define my expression of aesthetics through utilitarian vessels to create a sense of nostalgia with the user my mimicking industrial objects.

The research pertaining to my thesis explores the interactions between object and user. A patina layered over time evokes a sense of age, weathered memories of a time once lived. I look for these subtle nuances in form. Borrowing an aesthetic from manufactured products and reviving it in a domestic space is where my pots takes life. …

The Monongalia County Court House Mural: Blanche Lazzell And The Public Works Of Art Project In Morgantown, West Virginia, Kendall Joy Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956), a native of West Virginia and graduate of West Virginia University, was an early practitioner of Modern art in America. Lazzell was employed by the government-sponsored Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in 1934 in Morgantown, West Virginia. During her time with the program, Lazzell completed three wood-block prints and painted Justice, a mural for the Monongalia County Courthouse. This thesis examines Lazzell’s courthouse mural and discusses Lazzell’s selection of three themes, education, religion, and industry, and why they are significant to the Morgantown area. This thesis demonstrates that although the PWAP stipulated that there was to …

Design With Benefits : Combining Healthcare Step Programs And Design Tools To Make A Difference In Community Health, Emily E. Frye

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

I am aware that there is increasing emphasis being placed on designers pro actively designing services as opposed to simply creating artifacts. Looking past “selling” and moving toward enabling solutions that are for the greater good, this paper makes use of ethnographic contexts of communities involved to guide design. My thesis project designs a service plan and a program with artifacts. It is aimed at helping rural West Virginia Clinics intervene with unhealthy patients to help them prepare for a pro-active lifestyle. This program, named BeneFIT, was designed with user-centered methods and incorporates the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) developed by James …

Legibility: How Precedents Established In Print Impact On-Screen And Dynamic Typography, Heidi Specht

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The printed word has been commonplace in society for over 500 years; the written word has been in existence for thousands. The primary intent of the written or printed word has historically been to be read. With that goal, rules and formats have developed over the centuries as aids to legibility. Naturally, these guidelines have been developed for the printed, or static typographic page. As our sophistication with and acceptance of technology grows, however, we increasingly turn to the computer or television screen for written information. Additionally, graphic designers and artists are questioning the role of the printed word as …