Art and Design Commons^™

Counterpoint: Music And Art Education, Eileen Kosasih

MA Projects

Music education programming is generally not as accessible or available as museum education programming. General music illiteracy and the elitism of music education perpetuate a cycle of inaccessibility and lack of understanding of the value of music education. Meanwhile, the auditory art form is a fundamental component of culture, society, and history. Music’s language and history should be understood and appreciated widely. Art museum education programmers can work with music educators, music historians, and classical music programmers to incorporate music education into museum education programming. This project consists of three parts. The first section advocates the inclusion of music education …

Straight Through My Heart, Raul A. Aguilar Canela

Theses and Dissertations

Straight through my heart is an exhibition that explores the concept of heartbreak as a socio-political phenomenon. Through the affect of sadness the thesis analyses the way in which subjects are formed under cognitive capitalism. Paying particular interest to the collateral effects of neoliberal culture —hyper-stimulation, self-exploitation, competition, and obsession with productivity—and the pathologies they create —depression, anxiety, body aches, fatigue— this work shifts the burden of sadness from the individual to the community. By doing so it proposes heartbreak as a public feeling.

Alteration, Jared Jennings

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Mental illness is surprisingly far more common than people care to believe. This is in part due to the stigma which follows close behind it. Stigma, a mark of disgrace, began before medical experts and psychologists started studying mental illness in the 1840s. Before this time mental illness was seen as demonic possession. Usually, severe mental illness develops genetically. Although severe cases of mental illness are rare, the media has exploited them such as Jekyll and Hyde, Psycho, or Frailty. This stigma has caused many individuals who may suffer from mental illness to avoid treatment. I tell the stories of …

Hyperstatic, Zane Mahanna

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Hyperstatic is a designation given to structural elements when internal and external forces acting upon them are unable to be definitively calculated. The integrity of equilibrium therefore remains undetermined. The juxtaposition of literal, architectural forms, against the metaphorical, structural, hierarchies that govern society, seeks to question the very nature of humanity’s equilibrium often with a dose of comedic elements. The subversive humor manifested in my work is employed not only to make light of serious questions about the nature of existence, but also to disarm the viewer of preconceived notions about the esoteric seriousness of high art. This thesis catalog …

Combat Artist, Delvin Goode

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The integral bond that unites the American citizen with the selfless men and women of the Armed Forces will be strengthened through my juxtaposition of uncommonly complementary crafts. “Combat Artist”, featuring high-quality ceramic mugs, unique packaging, pristine painted panels, and kindred graphics will bridge a gap that enhances relationships between these two worlds through a shared love of country and shared culture. The resultant works create fantastic windows into my military life communicating messages full of humor, patriotism, and love. I aspire to masterfully unite ceramic techniques with proven principles of design distributed across all mediums within my work, culminating …

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

Scripps Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …

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, …

Unlocking The Energy Within; A Journey Through Healing And Evolution, Juliana Favela

CMC Senior Theses

Through a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors, I set out to document emotions, feelings, and experiences that I’ve had through my personal process of healing. By engaging in meditations for each piece, I was able to decide on a set of motifs, symbols, colors, and messages that I wanted to portray. This paper discusses in more detail how I went about this process and what the significance of each piece is, in addition to my inspiration, my identity and its impacts on the work, as well as what I learned from this process. I argue that as we unravel …

You Wouldn't Download An Art, Rice Evans

Theses and Dissertations

To quote the late Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, “The internet is a series of tubes.” Like my art practice, these tubes meander through concepts, techniques, and mediums to arrive at a messy, confusing, and overwhelming shared experience of digital life. It is here where we find humor, creativity, and most importantly our own folk culture.

Lost In Translation, Amanda Barr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Lost in Translation addresses the issues that trauma can create in communication; whether that be a physical trauma that damages ability to speak, think, or understand language, or mental and emotional trauma that significantly effects abilities to process, connect, and manage interpersonal relationships. My work is my voice, and a way to help others connect, to feel heard, and to even help them begin to communicate.

Down The Rabbit Hole: An Exhibition – And – Alice In Wonderland Engaging With The Reflexive Project Of The Self: An Exegesis, Shana James

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a culturally significant text that is widely known across many cultures. In this Victorian story, a little girl follows the talking White Rabbit down a rabbit hole to uncover a fantastical parallel world. Alice in Wonderland has remained in print for over 150 years, highlighting its continued relevance to generations of readers. This exegesis investigates the making of visual artwork that responds to this significant story, exploring the symbology and metaphorical nature of the text and seeing the story as a “reflexive project of the self” (Giddens, 1991, p. 5).

I began this research having …

Specimen X1-2020, Clayton Ehman

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This is the artwork that is featured in the cover.

Stretch, Weight, Relaxed, Proud, Twisted, Jesse W. Standlea

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

I created “Stretch, Weight, Relaxed, Proud, Twisted for the show “Perceive Me”. For this show, 48 artists collaborated to create representations with and of the artist Kristine Schomaker. In her artwork, Kristine confronts and deals with body image as related to her struggles with an eating disorder she suffers from.

Evolution Of Island, Dominique Kongsli

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Evolution of Island emerged from the depths of an ocean of blue paint. My process involves observation of nature: I remember scuba diving in Thailand in the Andaman Sea and having a spiritual experience underwater while observing Christmas-tree worms pop in and out of the coral.

Sink Hollow Volume 10

Sink Hollow

This year felt like a thunderstorm. Rain pelting down on us so hard it burns. Lightning strikes so stark we have to close our eyes. Thunder rumbling so ominously we feel it deep in our bones. So many things we hold dear have been lost in this storm.

But something we have found is the human ability to feel a raw and powerful pain. We are intrinsically bound to each other, to nature, and to this world by the pain we feel. A pain so powerful and deep you feel it is sucking you under and drowning you.

The pieces …

L, M, N, O, P, Matt Jones

Theses and Dissertations

A meditation on my painting and drawing practice in relation to the work of Philip Guston, Nancy Spero, and Frank Moore, among others, just before and during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Volcanoes & Other Yards, Rebeca Flores

Master's Theses

Volcanoes & Other Yards is a collection of short stories set in the yards of California, Mexico, and El Salvador. Characters see the manifestations of their labor through imagination and purposeful acts of play. Working class characters are pushed to eruptions that make them question what it means to witness racism, capitalism, and noble acts of good. They undergo solitude, loss of home, and welfare lines, and they witness their country gas children, government intrusions, and grief. To reconcile with their generational trauma, they must encounter land and labor. The collection explores the idea of an imaginary volcano to bring …

Love In A Bleak Climate: A Tale Of Desolation In The Deserts Of New Mexico, Remy Rogers, Han Dai-Yu

Honors Thesis

As an illustration major and English minor, my thesis melds the two mediums of the written word and visual imagery. One half of this thesis is a short story I’ve written about an old woman and her dog who become stranded in the deserts of New Mexico while on a camping trip following a coyote attack. Using the classic format of book illustrations, I chose 10 scenes from my story to interpret, decorate, and visually explain through the medium of traditional illustration: hand-drawn ink and watercolor drawings. A quote from each scene is included in the illustration itself. The purpose …

Overcoming The Myth Of The Contemporary “Starving Artist”: An Exploration Into The Fusion And Viability Of A 21st-Century Career In Art And Design, Miranda M. Myles Jackson

Masters Theses

This research explores the myth of the “starving artist” surrounding the pursuit of a career in the arts. Artists are often dubbed as starving due to the pre-conceived notion that careers in art do not provide longevity or financial stability. Due to this stigma, budding creatives are often dissuaded at home, school, or both from pursuing a career doing what they love. Arts programs are often cut and or remain underfunded, mainly due to this biased perception. Research indicates that careers in the arts have expanded exponentially due to its merge with various fields. According to both the STEM vs. …

Waiting Room, Adam Lefebvre

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Waiting can be exasperating, but sometimes that helplessness, knowing there is nothing to do but wait, is a comfort.

I have come to understand the value of the handmade through using and living with thoughtfully crafted objects. I am attracted to goods made by people who give voice to their material. When this is done well, I slow down and pay more attention to the object and the task they are performing.

Attraction and distraction. What are the differences between objects meant to attract our attention and those meant to distract? I would much rather lead a life full …

Making Christian Art In A Contemporary Setting, Raven Cordy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the past 4 and a half years, I have studied contemporary art and seen countless artworks being made in an academic setting. In doing so, I have come to the realization that religious content is rare in today’s time. While it is not actively discouraged, the environment I am in and the current art community does not seem to be particularly interested in merging the two concepts. Without understanding why, I subconsciously kept art and my faith as separate entities for the first few years of my higher education. But as I matured and developed my own artwork, I …

Seventeen Pieces: Displacement, Misplacement, And Conservation, Yasmin Merali, Kevork Mourad, Manas Ghanem

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article explores the systemic importance of art in the conservation of images, historical reference, and cultural meaning as displaced victims of humanitarian crises make the transition from the land of their birth to a new country with a different history and cultural landscape. In presenting the work of Kevork Mourad, an artist of Armenian descent displaced from Syria, we show the essential, layered interplay of visceral, lived individual experiences and the historic collective memory of real and imagined pasts that survive the destruction of physical artifacts.

Perceiving Mathematics And Art, Edmund Harriss

Mic Lectures

Mathematics and art provide powerful lenses to perceive and understand the world, part of an ancient tradition whether it starts in the South Pacific with tapa cloth and wave maps for navigation or in Iceland with knitting patterns and sunstones. Edmund Harriss, an artist and assistant clinical professor of mathematics in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, explores these connections in his Honors College Mic lecture.

De La Nature Au Processus D’Artification. Matière [Forme/Objet] Sens, Alexandre Melay

The Goose

Les progrès technologiques modifient radicalement ce qui nous était autrefois familier. Ce sentiment troublant venu de l’ère Anthropocène met en lumière l’impact humain sur la nature. Mais la perte d’un monde naturel nous oblige à gérer notre environnement en tant qu’environnement artificiel. Face à cette mutation profonde du concept même de nature, l’art opère un processus d’artification, renouvelant la nature dans de nouvelles formes néoarchéologiques et de nouvelles esthétiques, par le « passage du non-art en art ».

Ellie Westerheide: 1918 & 2020 Pandemic Poster, Ellie Westerheide

COVID-19 Graphic Design: Posters

• 19 inches high, 20 inches wide
• Mixed-media digital collage

Allen Morales: 1918 & 2020 Pandemic Poster, Allen Morales

COVID-19 Graphic Design: Posters

• Digital collage
• 18 x 24 inches, vertical
• Mixed media

Power Of The Press, Isabella Naccarato

Fall Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Students from Professor Cushman's CTZN 410 class put together a presentation of what was done over the course of the class period. From our many viewpoints came one unified, artistic print project that guaranteed all voices were recognized and heard. This production for public display connects the significance of the process from form to content and production to distribution via printed matter.

Introduction To Illustration, Nathan P. Sensel

Open Educational Resources

Illustration is a visual interpretation of the world around us and is meant to communicate ideas in a clear and creative manner. The illustrator uses many different tools to convey their perspective, including painting and drawing, photography, digital media, printmaking and more.

This course is an introduction to the analog, non-digital, handmade 2-dimensional techniques and materials that illustrators use and the messages they are attempting to convey. Throughout the course, you will be asked to describe and analyze different techniques and apply them to your own work. As with any other skill, warming up, exercising and practicing are essential components …

For The Love Of Existence, Paul Joseph Vogeler

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, artist Paul Joseph Vogeler discusses his influences and current art practice. He covers topics like Catholicism and mortality, BDSM and erotic art, Tarot, spirits and the afterlife, photography and painting, and bones and relics.

Grace Hughes: 1918 & 2020 Pandemic Poster, Grace Erin Hughes

COVID-19 Graphic Design: Posters

• Mixed-media digital collage
• 18 inches wide, 24 inches high