Art Practice Commons^™

Quiet Moments, Deitra Charles

CGU MFA Theses

I am a figurative artist who focuses on ordinary people and everyday objects. I paint moments. A moment of peace, a moment of tranquility, a moment of contemplation. It is my hope that my paintings will incite a feeling of warmth, presenting the possibility of thoughts that take you away from the stresses of day-to-day life – that they give you the opportunity to experience life differently, stirring within you some sense of peace.

It is my hope that my paintings will incite a feeling of warmth, presenting the possibility of thoughts that take you away from the stresses of …

The Threshold, Jonathan Yacoub

CGU MFA Theses

The Threshold is a place that forms a nuanced duality on what is authentic and artificial.

Carbon 碳, Mengyuan Li

CGU MFA Theses

Death is the one certainty in life. This fascinates me and I cannot stop thinking about it. When it comes to life and death, the cemetery is a more realistic place than heaven and hell, and it is also a place to feel life and death more directly. A simple gravestone separates life from death. Cemeteries let people come face to face with life, death, and even love.

In a cemetery, there is a tranquility that is different from the city or nature. In a cemetery, people take off their masks and face their emotions. I believe that when we …

Autopathography, Aurora Berger

CGU MFA Theses

For centuries the stories of disabled people were not our own to tell. We were silenced by politics and power dynamics beyond our control, and when we succeeded it was “in spite of” our disabilities. I am interested in the reframing of this narrative and discovering my place in this historic trajectory.

I am a disabled artist. I have claimed this identity. It is critical that this identity remains tied to my work as I navigate the worlds of fine art, academia, and critical theory. My art is intrinsically tied to my academic work. They are inseparably bonded through my …

Para Ti, Ashley Lothyan

CGU MFA Theses

This group of work draws from family photos that are over 15 years old, chosen from when I was born to the age of ten. Torn, wrinkled, and discolored, these photographs influence how I paint immediate family members, locations I grew up in, and myself.

Threaded, Madeline Arnault

CGU MFA Theses

This group of works is taken from my drawing practice. I have always been fascinated by the variety of line and color you can play with on fabric. For that reason each piece in this exhibition is image and line centric. I love the way a fabric can blend from color to color in the weave and yet contrast so sharply with a line placed on top. These works are a testament to that love.

Donyi Polo Apatani, Sejal Saraiya

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The Apatani are a non-nomadic, nature worshipping tribe who consider the Sun and the Moon their God, the Sun considered female and called Mother Sun. They have a sibling relationship with nature and perceive prosperity as a harmonious condition between man and nature.

Spaces Between, Sara Kapadia

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

No abstract provided.

Secrets, Todd Mccaffrey

CGU MFA Theses

What does it mean to be human and how does art help us in answering this question.

Kleptomaniac, Leslie Frank

CGU MFA Theses

I am a Kleptomaniac of public and private moments. Using my iPhone, I steal images of people and objects in public environments and frame these moments with the addition of my own poetic essence. I feel that Los Angeles is a unique city built on imagination, expectations and disappointments. Another aspect that is satisfying to me is the validation that I feel when I am at the right place at the right time. We don't always get to feel this in everyday life. Whether the experience is similar or foreign, the empathy is significant.

Raw, Jian Liang

CGU MFA Theses

My work is an exploration of the body in obscurity. The understanding of my own cultural identity, gender, and sexuality lead up to the work in this show. The work is a metaphor for the complex identity that I experience, and a discovery of the queer, marginal space that I am in as a person, as a painter, as an artist.

The term “raw” refers not only to the sensuous bodies depicted in my work, but also the body of the physical material. The paintings question the intimate relationship between bodies, and the bodies’ internal as well as external spaces. …

Zooairyland- Xinjie Yin Mfa Thesis Show, Xinjie Yin

CGU MFA Theses

During the process of discovering myself in my art world, I have determined to use cuteness as a way to express my worldview, values, and experiences. Cuteness is my own philosophy and language in the interpersonal communication. I intend to make cuteness meaningful to me as well as to the rest of the world. I believe cuteness contains a power to bring people back to their original simplicity regardless of their age, it is the idea of innocence. Cuteness is like a shield for me to protect myself from the tough, scary and crazy reality; and it is a positive …

In Visible Grounds, Jennifer Simms

CGU MFA Theses

Jenni Simms - In Visible Grounds - Show Description

I am interested in finding ways to make visual art that positions the viewer between advocation and negation, or possession and estrangement with the natural world and human presence. As an artist I am most satisfied when I can include all of these ideas together: a sense of time, edges of some kind, a sense of mystery alongside just enough of the known and signs of human presence and the natural world.

For In Visible Grounds I began my focus with color, or the visible light spectrum.is includes all of the …

Facing The World: The Unapparent Merits Of Makeup, Ishbel A. Mccann

Scripps Senior Theses

The act of applying makeup is a ritual shared by many, often beginning at an early age. Though makeup is presented as a final product in the public sphere, the process of applying makeup can be just as, if not more important. This thesis acts as the theoretical basis for my digital art project, Facing the World. My work gives insight into the lesser understood motivations behind wearing makeup while shedding the stigma that wearing it is merely a superficial act or sign of vanity. The project Facing the World presents the makeup routines and personal narratives of seven …

Field Guide, Madeline Helland

Scripps Senior Theses

Field Guide is a mixed-media artist book detailing the exploration of a fictitious culture through cartography, narrative, and illustration. It is presented through the lens of an amateur archaeologist, navigating a chain of islands to search for ruins and artifacts. In part, the project is focused on the fantasy of an imagined world. The island chain is a place entirely of my own creation. By creating the viewpoint of an outside explorer, it was possible to navigate through this world. Although I, as the artist, can know everything about this fictitious world, adopting the perspective of someone distanced by time …

Setting:Home, Adrienne Cole

CGU MFA Theses

I look at the world graphically, seeing people as objects, objects as shapes and shapes as lines. I develop these elements into textural abstractions and patterned representations. Sometimes my work is almost entirely abstract while at other times traces of visual references can be seen. I am interested in intersections and in-between; my works fill space with disorder allowing the audience to see through my scattered, confusing and often times mysterious lens.

Stumbling Into The Spiral: A Serendipitous Steam Exploration, David Rufo

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

An artist-educator discovers how a STEAM-based approach to making art brings together a variety of subject areas in surprising ways.

Passing, Paul Kelley

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Passing is a Site-specific public installation assembled with plastic and an iPad. At its center, the iPad displays a video loop of a human image repeatedly walking in and out of the frame. The work maintains my foundational interest in having the viewer slow down to have a more thoughtful and absorptive experience with the work and surrounding space – continuing my practice of challenging viewer’s expectations and putting them in a position to stop and question.

Combining An Intuitive Art Workshop And Neuroscience Rituals To Make Us Happy, Audrey Gran Weinberg

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

One might wonder how intuitive art can connect to neuroscience and how this could be accomplished. In this descriptive article, research connecting art therapy and neuroscience has been collected and a workshop on Intuitive Painting has been described in detail. The connection was made by the author based on an article by Barker (2017), ‘4 Rituals to be more Happy,’ who writes a popular science blog. The rituals: gratefulness, expressing negative emotions, decision making and human touch were combined with Dr. Pinkie Feinstein’s method of Intuitive Painting in a small group setting. Although subjective, it would seem that at least …

Wonder, Walking, And Water, Rachel Mayeri

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Art and Science is a seminar and studio course on science-inspired art practices. We will survey and discuss cutting-edge art-science theory, practice, and institutions in seminar. In studio, we examine art-science topics in hands-on experiments, and guided activities leading to art projects.

Elements Of Art, Mike Doyle

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Through these paintings and my writing I share how elements of art and science overlap in the strokes of paint that create the perceptions of something familiar in our minds.

A New Generation For Art And Science, Alice Marie Perreault

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

My interest in this cross-over between art and science, specifically, the body and supportive technologies, has lead me to mixed media and installations where I can examine degeneration and a “new” generation using a combination of conventional and unconventional materials. Unlike re-generation, which is a return to an original state, “new” generation gives way to new arrangements.

Blowouts, Bricks, And Lines, Kenneth Fandell

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This essay shares the interdisciplinary insights from three projects

Sediment - Behind The Cover Art, Melanie Moore Bermudez

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Ideas of mapping, topography, erosion and evaporation have been loosely connected to my work for several years now. In my latest series I have put more of a focus on those ideas. In particular I am interested in the movement of sediment pushed by a flow of water and then left, stranded in a new location, as that water source dries up and diminishes. The pigments of the ink in the paintings are my sediment that I build up layer after layer to create a mini geological world caught in a moment of shift, pause and flow.

Sediment, Melanie Moore Bermudez

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Ideas of mapping, topography, erosion and evaporation have been loosely connected to my work for several years now. In my latest series I have put more of a focus on those ideas. In particular I am interested in the movement of sediment pushed by a flow of water and then left, stranded in a new location, as that water source dries up and diminishes. The pigments of the ink in the paintings are my sediment that I build up layer after layer to create a mini geological world caught in a moment of shift, pause and flow.

Discovering And Demonstrating Patterns, Maria Klawe

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Harvey Mudd College's President Maria Klawe shares her personal journey in combining a love of mathematics and art.

All Glory Is Fleeting, Steven Beswick

CGU MFA Theses

The statement is specifically linked to my MFA thesis exhibition.

"Some Kinda Alchemy", Chelsea Boxwell

CGU MFA Theses

Multiple pieces and paintings come together in “Some kinda Alchemy” to create one large-scale painting environment that increases your interaction and perception of two- dimensional painting. The sculptural aspect is solely a means to an end, to allow the viewer to see more. I want everyone to see as much as possible- as much of the physical painting as possible and as much of the process and actions as possible. There’s more than just a front and 4 sides to my paintings. This structure also inhabits the space the way it does in order to direct you all the way …

Tony Larson: 2017 Mfa Thesis Exhibition, Tony Larson

CGU MFA Theses

I am interested in altering the modes of communication to which I am subjugated. I am open to participating fully in the world around me, especially in the arms of technology. With every new media channel directed at changing consumer behavior and every new gadget at its dedicated servitude, there are new cracks and chasms to inhabit. These spaces are where new propositions are made. I discover and expand these empty spaces by sticking to a regimented set of processes and self imposed limitations to the way I approach painting. My work proposes that the space of art is uniquely …

Hardcore Frivolity, Dixie Lyn Boswell

CGU MFA Theses

I believe in experiencing the world and truth through all the senses. Digging beneath the surface and not stopping at the first thing that flutters through my head. My art installations work with light, abstract imagery, reflective surfaces, and motion, to manipulate spaces creating multi-sensory experiences that encourage a heightened awareness of being in one's body.