Art and Design Commons^™

Song From A Chamber, Miguel A. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

My work weaves a biomythography through figurative reimagining of syncretist religious iconographies. This thesis installation is composed of a mural reliquary in which a collection of twenty works on paper is displayed. The project exposes abstract dimensions of body and spirit in relation to my experience as a gay immigrant.

In-Between The Wind, Victoria L. Vontz

LSU Master's Theses

In-between the Wind is a compilation of poems, short stories, theories, photographs, and drawings that reveal my relationship and connection with nature. Through prose, I expose and question my place in the world, how I see it and how I am connected to it, while photographic images and drawings leave space for thoughtful and reflective meditation. The work draws upon memories, discusses theories of connection, and aims to record ephemeral moments that often seem to be too easily forgotten.

Dandy/Robin/Gardener By Sadie Pressman, Sadie Pressman

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Dandy

I’ll be so direct by saying, if I may, that here is simply, absolutely, the best place to be. Here,
where the rolling hill plunges towards the ocean. Here, where the sight of the Bavarian blue sky
makes my insides feel endless. Here, where, watching as I so often do, as the white cotton
shape-shifts before my eyes, summer-time in suspense. The sun’s rays suspend from the sky,
dangling like the hands of time. They caress me. A pocket watch in the sky, the sky's the best
accessory. Here, where I am more popular than I could ever have …

Floral Beauty By Sophia Squire, Sophia Squire

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Floral Beauty

An appreciation for chrysanthemum
Took bloom within her soul during
Her early years of life and began
To flourish as time went on

Passing slowly, the years whisked
By and things would grow all around
Her as her hair drifted down past
Her slim shoulders – long brown

“I wish to grow my roots, soon,
In one place where I can stay
Becoming stronger within myself
Until it is time for me to wither away

I’ll make this body a lovely space
For my spirit of flora to grow and
Thrive, with windows all around to
Let sunshine …

We, Three By Ginny Majka, Ginny Majka

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

We, Three

I am the soil, the mountains and oceans of life.
Mycellium colonies beneath my surface plunge up
up, up through the peat and the moss, the decaying leaves. They pray for the rain, the fruit of my earth.
Plantae nestle in, fragile and comfortable,
seeds sprout to eagerly gulp rain,
animalia flourish, consuming what I provide
only to come home, at the end, to me
to rejoin my earth;
we are one
I am the atmosphere, the sunny clouds and storms producing bounty to those below
I am the chaos in the lightning
I am the rainbow after …

Ilja By Paula Shevenell, Paula Shevenell

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

ILJA

I remember you
sitting in the woods,
Gathering in the children
Gathering in the
sights and sounds.
You’re expression
warm, kind patient
as the children crawl over you.

I remember
Sitting on this rock
breathing in the scent of the woods
Trying to bring in
the calm I see in you
Amid the chaos
Of children befriending you
Of parents attempting
To capture the moment
With their devices
Of plastic, wires and glass.

Three Garden Visitors By Vivien Russe, Vivien Russe

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Three Garden Visitors

Beside a cup of tea, I am a spotted leopard on pajamas.
Outside in the garden, this early summer morning,
Staying sly, quiet, not wanting to draw any attention from the neighbors.

A birdie is hidden in the Emerald Green Arborvitae,
After lunch, Owen comes over, asking politely if he can come into the yard to find it.
I reply, “Certainly, you can retrieve anything that lands in the yard without asking”.

Coming unannounced, no matter when, full of presumption
It comes with the lightest, gentle touch or the hardest hit, knocking flowers off center.
Below the …

Objects And Images, Jack Lovell

Masters Theses

My work often involves photographic source material as well as surrealistic forms. Two primary influences, René Magritte and Gerhard Richter, can be seen as at odds with each other in many respects. Drawing parallels and distinctions, I explore relationships in the work of Magritte, Richter and myself.

The Broken Thought Machine [Broh-Kuhn Thawt Muh-Sheen], Michael Dispensa

Masters Theses

A bulky, inflamed, excess volume of overactive targeted neuron choking nonsense that profits off creating fear-induced high-speed bowel movements.

My current work seeks to create space for intrusive thoughts and images that repeat, disturb, distress, and contaminate. The source of these intrusions is called the Broken Thought Machine(BTM). I use multimedia practices of drawing, sculpture, performance, and video to unearth the origins and properties of the BTM to then perpetuate its product to an absurd degree. This obsessive reiteration brings negativity to a threshold where horror and detachment can spontaneously metamorphose into humor and compassion.

The BTM can be an …

Lost (1), K Hope Tarleton

TYGR: Student Art and Literary Magazine 2018-present

No abstract provided.

Wrestling (2), K Hope Tarleton

TYGR: Student Art and Literary Magazine 2018-present

No abstract provided.

Missing, Murdered, Indigenous, Matthew Bollinger

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of the Greater Southwest

The missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic is an issue currently affecting Indigenous people in North America. To articulate my concept visually, old photographs that showcase American culture (predominantly white) are drawn on, cut-up, and recomposed into portraits of missing Navajo women.

Optimistic And A Little Flawed, Christian Schultz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The accompanying exhibition to this paper, Optimistic and Flawed is a body of drawings and objects that explores the liminal space between playful and intended actions. Inspired by the landscape of the yard and the actions that take place within, the goalless play of a child and the laborious maintenance of an adult. The value of play exists within labor and labor exists within play. The drawings observe this through the theoretical framework of telic and paratelic motivational states as they relate to drawing. Abstracted yards and landscapes provide a space for the labor of the hand. A history of …

Heartwork, Lance Taylor Loftin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heartwork is a collection of paintings, drawings, and sculptures that explore the many ways identity is shaped by familial histories and personal memory. Focusing on my time growing up on a pine tree farm in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 90s, Heartwork explores gender, religion, regional traditions, family, and art. Through conversations and collaborations with my family, painting acts as an impetus for strengthening relationships. By reevaluating the past, I am able to create a web of interconnected narratives that inform and shift my understanding of the present.

A Moment Of Peace: An Artistic Representation Of The Influence Of Healthcare On Social Disruption, Nafisa Choudhury

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

This original pen-and-ink artwork features a lily on the water symbolizing peace. As war, distrust, chaos and coups wreak havoc throughout many developing nations, healthcare workers and public health officials should be encouraged that we do in fact have a part to play in managing the human health affected by the disruption. Health work can provide a zone of comfort, spread solidarity and understanding, and manage the human toll of war. Healthcare workers have major roles in peace-keeping efforts as a result of these determinations and their impact on peace should be acknowledged and lauded. We hope that as we …

Tomorrow Is The Worst Day Since Yesterday, Matthew Carlson

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

Susan Sontag wrote: “Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other space”.

This work addresses aspects of that citizenship. I used my experiences as a person living with a disability and as a parent to a son with Autism to explore the dichotomy of this dual citizenship. The …

Mythology Of Uncertainty, Connor Johanson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

I think of my work as a mythology under constant revision that reevaluates our human perceptions of the natural world. The root of mythology comes to us from ancient Greek mythos. The original meaning of mythos was simply an account from memory–your mythos could be what your day was like, what happened and how you felt. We are all in the continuous process of building narratives of our individual lives, our cultures, and the world around us.

Human stories and values–mythos–underlie metaphors and analogies, meaning that no discussion of scientific ideas can be free of cultural bias. Discussion of symbiotic …

Replicant, John Grabko

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Artist Statement

This body of work explores technology throughout modern history into today, and how it affects society and the people within. There are many sides to technological innovation, and as time goes on it also changes our own priorities; even how we choose to either reject reality or intensify the effects of mass consumerism. Technology can also change the way we look at currency itself, surprise us with an unexpected reality or change what we view as beauty. Within this work I utilize drawing, printmaking, and collage to visualize our observed reality, the implications of the decisions we make, …

Reclaim, Harris Benjamin Deno

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

I make ceramic and mixed media objects that embody interaction with material. Translated from the simple utterance of the hand the material articulates the labor. As in any relationship there are miscommunications and disagreements; Desperation, struggle, and honest interaction are apparent on the surface of the labored forms. Objects are created in an immediate fashion, the intimacy of the moment folded into the material. Each interaction an embodiment of the human experience. I think of these works as entries in a journal; The gravity of a moment is captured, relieving the mind by bearing that weight.

Whenever approaching a work, …