Art Practice Commons^™

Of Ghosts And Garage Sales: The Painted Realizations Of Reflective Nostalgia, Rachel Ahava Rosenfeld

Graduate School of Art Theses

Painted from the lost snapshot photograph collections of strangers, the Testimonial paintings represent both the mythical potential of earlier times and the maddening reality that no matter what details are revealed, they can only ever be ghosts of the glories and tragedies that preceded our own. In the search for their stories, for their truths, for their absent memories, everything and everyone that we could have known lies dormant. The ghosts, the legion of “selves” arise from the questions asked of the paintings, and through the invented answers that activate the fractured past. In order to do this, I analyze …

A Crocodile Passed By Today, I Said Hello, He Said Hello, That Annoyed Me, Mayra A. Villegas

CGU MFA Theses

The creatures in my paintings are vastly invested in catering to my sensibilities. Emotional cowardice, impulsive politeness: through them, I am relieved of those personal culprits. They lend ropes, take blame, spit in eyes, and color my streams of consciousness. Furthermore, they manifest personal and social arrays of vexing scenarios. Suffocating hierarchies, the monotony of existence, my paintings aim to offer respite from such malaise.

Ultimately, my paintings are resolving, absolving even, personal and societal grievances.

Lili Zhong Artist Statement, Lili Zhong

CGU MFA Theses

Appreciating beauty, the universe’s natural essence, is an innate and indispensable human ability that helps us learn about the world. Everyone has their own definition, even on the degree to which beauty represents something abstract or realistic. It could mean elegance or romance, be from an audio or visual source, pertain to religious wisdom or even human value. Regardless, art always address beauty.

It's Always Better With A Good Dm, David Colannino

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

It’s Always Better With A Good DM is about our relationship with objects and maps as a vector for fantasy. Beginning from the premise that humans understand the world via narrative, I am concerned with the loss of imagination in adulthood in lieu of ideology, which is no more real than stories of future and fantastic places.

Bridging The Gap: Making Modern Dance Accessible To The General Public Through Elements Of Art And Entertainment, Samantha S. Russell

Honors Theses

My senior choreographic project, DoRaMiFaSoDoSiDo, was inspired by and dedicated to the relationships I share with my six siblings. It was set to the song "Attaboy" off of the collaborative album The Goat Rodeo Sessions by Chris Thile, Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer. Influenced by the bright and fun atmosphere of barn dances, this seven-person concert dance was performed in the Repertory Dance Company Fall Dance Concert at the Mannoni Performing Arts Center in Hattiesburg, MS in the fall of 2015. This paper investigates different choreographic methods that I discovered through the process of creating my senior project …

Meta-Forms, Rickey P. Bump

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses his Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Meta-forms, held at the Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City. Exhibition dates are from March 14 through March 25, 2016. The artworks on display are a series of drawings made from carving wood panels and sheet metal and are accompanied with a large scaled site-specific installation. The exhibition culminates from research of historic and contemporary figures for non-objective art. The author gives insight to the artistic process while creating his exhibition, as well as their personal connection with the artwork.

Kindred, Katelyn Osborne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kindred, an MFA exhibition held at the Tipton Gallery located in downtown Johnson City from Feburary 22^nd to March 4^th. Kindred presents two bodies of work, which are a collection of drawings, etchings, monoprints, and lithographs, that center around a personal mythology and symbolism of self-identity and discovery. These works explore the physical and spiritual connection behind being a fraternal twin through the metaphorical use of animal imagery.

The ideas discussed in this paper center around the process of creating a personal mythology and symbolism through my observations of animals and how I relate that experience to …

'Stillwater' : An Exhibition That Explores Touch And The Everyday Through Ceramic Objects And Photography, Lily Fein

Art - All Scholarship

The exhibition, stillwater, is a Capstone Project that showcases ceramic-based installations in addition to photographs by Ian Sherlock. Both Ian and myself use material and process in its raw form. The work that Sherlock exhibits in stillwater is a series of pinhole camera exposures of the sun passing. He sees this simple yet profound passing of time as an opportunity to gain tacit knowledge of the sun. In my work, I gain parallel knowledge in the medium of clay, as I am physically invested in every mark that I make. There is no smoothing over or correcting; every moment is …

James Kao Interview, Alice Haller

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: James Kao was born and raised in Houston, Texas. After studying philosophy and focusing on the texts of Ludwig Wittgenstein at the University of Chicago, he worked as a bakery buyer for a specialty foods retail chain in Southern California. In 2001, James forwent his corporate career and returned to Chicago to take classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he received an MFA from the Painting and Drawing Department. He is Assistant Professor of Art at Aurora University in Aurora, IL, and is co-founder and co-director of 4^th Ward Project Space in …

Alejandro Acierto Interview, Madeline Bolton

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Alejandro T. Acierto is an artist and musician working in time-based media. He has exhibited his work at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Issue Project Room, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Salisbury University, SOMArts and presented performance works at the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, Center for Performance Research, and Center for New Music and Technology. Acierto has held residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Banff Centre, High Concept Laboratories, and Chicago Artists' Coalition. He is currently a FT/FN/FG Consortium Fellow, a Center Program Artist …

Art Aids America: Expressions From An Epidemic, Rebecca Holbrook, Lu Freitas, April Lammers, Rebecca Acree, Jamie Hollis, Holly Martin

P-12 Lesson Plans

This series of lessons for K-12 Art classrooms emerged from the spring 2016 ZMA exhibition, Art AIDS America. This groundbreaking exhibition underscored the deep and unforgettable presence of HIV in American art. It introduced and explored a wide spectrum of artistic responses to AIDS, from the politically outspoken to the quietly mournful, surveying works from the early 1980s to the present. Art AIDS America was organized by Tacoma Art Museum in partnership with The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and co-curated by Dr. Jonathan D. Katz, Director, Visual Studies Doctoral Program at the University at Buffalo (The State University of …

Taking In: A Juried Selection Of Undergraduate Photography 2016, Lucad Students

Taking In

Taking In is a juried annual student-run publication that showcases the best of LUCAD undergraduate photography and video. The project focuses on the business of promoting art and culminates each year with a juried exhibition, publication, and website all designed to promote selected works of AIB artists. The selected pieces were chosen anonymously by a jury of distinguished members of the Boston art community. The book in your hand is the end result of a collective effort by those in the class.

Shaurya Kumar Interview, Tejas Patel

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: A native of Delhi, India where he studied printmaking and painting at the College of Art; Shaurya Kumar graduated with his MFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2007. Since 2001, Kumar has been involved in numerous prestigious research projects, like “The Paintings of India” (a series of 26 documentary films on the painting tradition of India); "Handmade in India" (an encyclopedia on the handicraft traditions of India); and digital restorations of 6th century Buddhist mural paintings from the caves of Ajanta. Kumar’s research is focused on creating works which appreciate and appropriate new media while highlighting the …

Lara Salmon, Thesis Statement, Lara Salmon

CGU MFA Theses

My art brings together materials and ideas inspired by personal experience that do not usually exist side by side. My body is the primary mechanism with which I make work, incidentally making me the subject matter of the work. I use my physical self as an instrument to coalesce and transform other materiality. Through live performance and photographic installations I create tension and balance between crude biology and bright, polished formalism. This body of work focuses on Millennial Feminism and the Middle East.

Snow Yunxue Fu Interview, Noah Fornear

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Snow Yunxue Fu (b. 1987) is an artist who lives and works in Chicago. Her work approaches the subject of the Sublime using topographical computer rendered animation installation. She exams and interprets the world around her through virtual reality, where she draws a parallel to the realms of multi-dimensionality, the physical, the virtual, and the metaphysical. Fu has exhibited her work nationally and internationally including Hong Kong Arts Center, Yellow Peril Gallery, Expo Chicago, Digital Culture Center in Mexico City, Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago Filmmakers, Kunsthalle Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art, MoMA …

Cesar Conde Interview, Ramona-Sky Rosenthal

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: A post-contemporary painter, Conde uses old world technique using modern materials to paint his realistic portraits. Conde is a Filipino-American Chicago based artist who was primarily self-taught until he hit a wall with his technical skills. Upon realizing his artistic limitations, Conde decided to study at Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy with John Michael Angel, who apprenticed for Pietro Annigoni. He also studied with Master Painter of Technique Mixte, Patrick Betaudier in his atelier in Monflanquin, France. Conde’s influences are Carravaggio, Rehmbrant, and Goya. Conde continues to learn and explore the infinite possibilities of painting.

Conde’s …

Akemi Nakano Cohn Interview, Allisan Tate

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio:

Akemi Nakano Cohn studied traditional Japanese dyeing/printing techniques for ten years under the master Haru Izumi in Yokohama, Japan. She received an MFA in Fiber Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield, MI) and a BFA from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan. Cohn has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Int'l Surface Design Conference, Haystack, and others. She was visiting artist at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Nebraska, Zijdelings (Netherlands), and artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch and Ragdale Foundation. She has been in many exhibits, including solo exhibits; Urban …

Aram Han-Sifuentes Interview, Yanessa Rodriguez

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio:
Aram Han Sifuentes learned how to sew when she was 6 years old from her seamstress mother. Han Sifuentes was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to Modesto, California as a child. She mines from her family’s immigration experience to address issues of labor and explores identity as a first generation immigrant.

Han Sifuentes’s work has been shown in national and international exhibitions. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum in Seoul, South Korea; Wing Luke Museum of Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle, WA; Center for Craft, Creativity and …

Nothing Behind The Sun, Sebastian Fierro Castro

Theses and Dissertations

painting as a containment exercise, and as such, a tool that allows us to interiorize the world

Author Guidelines: Biennial Symposium 2016 Proceedings

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Instructions for submission to the biennial symposium proceedings

Lasting Impressions: Indian Block-Prints And Global Trade, Eiluned Edwards

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

"Above the proficiency in making cotton textiles, India’s crowning textile accomplishment was the patterning of this cloth with brilliant fast dyes."

Textiles are among India’s most successful exports and the enduring popularity of block printed cloth has sustained a centuries-old craft that survives and even thrives in the digital age. Block prints have been integral to the dress codes of the subcontinent as well as serving domestic and ritual functions. (figs. 1-2) They were also embedded in the material culture of diverse nations through centuries of international trade. So what has enabled their longevity and global reach? This paper explores …

Exploring Color Interactions Illuminated In Goldwork Embroidery, Katherine Diuguid

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Unexpected things happen when you mix colored threads with metal threads in embroidery--the metals cast their reflections onto the threads, changing the perception of the colors to the viewer. The expectation is for the metal to reflect the light. The excitement lies in the unpredictable nature of how the reflections affect the perception of the surrounding colors and how these perceived colors change as the metals age. Color theory principles are seen in their extremes when mixed with the metal threads. The natural reaction when approaching gold is to assume it is a yellow, making purple its complement according to …

Sacred Currency: The Value Of Textile In Colonial Andean Painting, Gaby Greenlee

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In this 18th century colonial Andean image painted in the former Inka capital of Cuzco, Peru, a wreath of flowers encircles a small female figure sitting upon a richly textured seat (Figure 1). She wears clothing that connotes distinction; her features and gestures are as delicate as her garments yet her eyes are fixed and discerning. Our eyes are drawn to her eyes. What does she see? What is her role? We also turn these questions on ourselves: what do we know about this figure that gives the painting meaning? We tend to interpret the work through her identity.

However, …

On Textile Fragments Found At Karadong, A 3rd To Early 4th Century Oasis In The Taklamakan Desert (Xinjiang, China), Sophie Desrosiers, Corinne Debaine-Francfort

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In 1993 and 1994, the Sino-French archeological mission in Xinjiang led by Abdurassul Idriss and Corinne Debaine-Francfort,1 excavated the site at Karadong in the heart of the Takalamakan desert, on a former delta of the Keriya River, whose headwaters are in the Kunlun Mountains at the Tibetan border, and which vanishes in the desert sands. At one time, it continued north all the way to the Tarim River, thus forming a communication link with the Kucha region. Older deltas visible on satellite images have been explored and two related archeological sites have been consecutively excavated to the northwest of Karadong: …

Mexican Ikat And Transatlantic Trade, Alejandro B. De Avila

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The earliest text known so far in the Americas was engraved on a potsherd found in Chiapa de Corzo in southern Mexico that has been dated to around 300 years before our era. The script appears to represent a language in the Mixe-Zoquean family (which developed historically along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec), and it has been proposed that the inscription on the clay reads as follows: “The pleated cloth got dyed. The thing that is made of pleated cloth has been cut.”1 If this interpretation holds true, the text must refer to a textile that was patterned by means of …

America’S Indigo Obsession: From Colonial Plantations To Contemporary Diy Ethos, Sonja Dahl

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This research project is, as the title implies, quite broad. It has grown from stories shared generously with me by many of indigo’s proponents today, as well as the stories compiled in the historical and ethnographic research of scholars such as Andrea Feeser1 and Jenny Balfour Paul.2 This paper was originally written for oration, and what I offer here is a transcript of this talk as performed at the Textile Society of America’s 2016 symposium, Land, Labor and the Port in Savannah, GA, October 2016. It is an open reflection on some of the stories and broader themes I’ve encountered …

New Tools In The Box: Traditional Methods, Contemporary Materials And New Techniques On The Atlantic Coast A Round Table Discussion, Memory Holloway, Laurie Carlson Steger

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported on the new interest in fiber arts, with the claim that this interest has seen a revival in the hands of contemporary artists exploring bold new forms. “The emergence of fiber art,” states Glenn Adamson, director of New York’s Museum of Art and Design, “is not just the reappraisal of an historic textile movement, rather a much more broad-based interest.”1 The fiber artists on this roundtable addressed two topics related to this broad-based interest, one on formal experimentation, the other on their geographic placement as artists on the Atlantic coast, particularly in and around …

Field To Bag, Bag To Field: Feedbag Production And Distribution In Rural America, Heather R. Buechler

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

sack- noun a large bag made of a strong material such as burlap, thick paper, or plastic, used for storing and carrying goods.[English Oxford Living Dictionaries.com,]

A popular object among collectors of agricultural ephemera, the printed agricultural sack—both textile and paper—used for the distribution of agricultural goods, is an object with a rich history. Previous research published on these ephemeral objects has typically examined their use and reuse in American households as clothing, quilts, and other domestic goods, or their significance in the World War I Belgian War Relief under the Herbert Hoover administration. This paper poses approaches to the …

Bombay To Bauhaus: Design Influences In Churchill Weavers Textiles From 1922-1949, Sarah Stopenhagen Broomfield

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Churchill Weavers, a nationally known handweaving center founded in 1922 in the Cumberland foothills in Berea, Kentucky, created a marketing niche by promoting the Modernist look in its textile products. Modernist textiles focused on woven structure, texture, yarn and fabric properties as the major design elements. Bauhaus artists codified and disseminated a theory of modern textiles as Europe rebuilt in the interwar period, while in America Modernist textiles were commodified as a marketing trend in early 20th century consumerism. Eleanor Churchill, co-owner and the company’s first designer was influenced by textile designs from India, from Modernist textiles, and from Swedish …

Transnational Influences On Louisiana Samplers: Traditions, Teachers, Techniques, And Text, Lynne Anderson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Louisiana’s early history is colored with multinational interests and domination by a succession of nations speaking diverse languages. Although “discovered” by the Spanish in the 1600s, the French were the first to colonize the area, founding New Orleans in 1718 with financial support (and administrative control) from the Company of the Indies. New Orleans became Louisiana’s colonial capital in 1721. Most of the earliest immigrants to Louisiana were either French military personnel or French Canadian adventurers and traders. Their number was augmented by the forced immigration of criminals, prostitutes, and those incarcerated in French workhouses. By all accounts this made …