Art Practice Commons^™

Exploring Family Heritage And Personal Space To Find Meaning And Content In Student Art, Rebecca Link Wilhelm

Theses and Dissertations

As an art educator, I found student art lacking in meaning and students lacking personal engagement. I sought a way to engage students in more meaningful art-making in the classroom by exploring family heritage and personal spaces. This case study searched the family heritage and personal spaces of students in a junior high art class to engage students and find deeper meaning and context for student art-making. The research was informed through an arts-based inquiry with a/r/tographic influence. It was a qualitative inquiry, mining the familiar for development of a curriculum rich in context and personal significance for students. This …

Pattern, Ritual And Thresholds, Jessica Amber Egbert

Theses and Dissertations

The work in this show reflects my interest in the role of the ceramic vessel historically as well as its place in the dialogue of contemporary art. Traditionally thought of as an object of craft and function, the vessel has found footing also as a conceptual container of ideas and artistic expression. It teeters on the threshold between craft and art, between art and life. Because of its strong association with the domestic, I find the vessel to be a fitting form on which to paint ornamental patterns and imagery associated with my own home life and to put into …

Transitors, Sarah B. Crofts

Theses and Dissertations

As an expression of integrated languages and an extension of my art practice, Transitors operates at the intersection of data, photography and language to explore the fragmentation and disintegration of the human psyche and bodily awareness through the effects of digital technology and contemporary social dissociation. Elements of the text simultaneously function as formulas, facts, and data interspersed with expository and narrative writing, all relating mimetically to various registers of this dissociation. The text moves amongst these levels, shifting from the personal to hints of a technological sublime to exemplify the predicament of the individual in relation to systems of …

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

Viewer-, Author-, And Ownership In The Work Of Andrea Zittel, Amanda M. York

Theses and Dissertations

Andrea Zittel invites others to collapse the distinctions between artist, viewer, and collaborator by interacting with her usable works. This thesis explores the process of interacting with Zittel's works, and how it affects viewer-, author- and ownership.

Fragmented Places, Saulat Ajmal

Theses and Dissertations

My work is about an inner struggle, which stems from the shifting nature of my own identity being constantly displaced and re-imagined. My paintings and performances are propositions for a utopic world. They offer a place for identity to rest and are defined through ritualistic movements, which are inescapably mine. While I work in several mediums including paintings, performance, installation and sculpture, this thesis paper is an exploration of the work I have produced specifically over the last six months

Everywhere And Nowhere: Public Art Interventions In Qatar, Barbara Charrue

Theses and Dissertations

Qatar is rapidly becoming an internationally renowned art hub not only through the construction of numerous museums and galleries, but also through the development of public art projects.

I strongly believe that Qatar can be more than a place to work; it can be a space where art is part of public spaces. But how can we fully and effectively integrate art into public space in Qatar? How can Qatar be more than a place where we work, eat, sleep, and go to the mall from time to time? How can public art involve / benefit the community and local …

So Much Apparent Nothing, Emily Mcbride

Theses and Dissertations

This document contains reflections on motivations behind selected works leading up to and including my thesis exhibition so much apparent nothing. Through journal excerpts and analysis of my own psychology, I attempt to put into words my thoughts concurrent to my making, indirect as they may be. The following text shares my personal conflicts and ideologies surrounding art-making, the permanence of objects, and the acceptance of an identity in flux.

Practice, Morgan T. Babic

Theses and Dissertations

Past training as an athlete has driven me to reach for the unattainable goal of flawlessness. This mentality, which I apply to jewelry making, has led me to recreate the intricate angles of the athletic body and the beauty of its movements. I use gymnastics imagery within my work as a tool to communicate how we learn and understand through practice and repetition. With shifted lines, skewed shapes and geometric wirework, the jewelry tumbles over the architecture of the wearer’s body. The repetitive metal forms come together to simulate movement and enhance the physical language that a body in motion …

Perspectives, Beatrice Modisett

Theses and Dissertations

My paintings are linked to a thirst for exploring new landscapes and perspectives, my interest in the extremes and subtleties of geological phenomenon and a desire to create, chase after, and teeter on a brink. Here I will discuss these topics and work to unpack my interest in avoiding comfort, my relationship to control and the creation and function of my paintings. To extract myself from my tactile and visual world of process and paint and enter the world of written language presents very different challenges than the ones fostered in the studio. The goal in both is to reveal …

The Curiosity Of Con, Petrified Breath, And An Accident Known As Blue., Steven Randall

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis installation emerged from an interest in visualizing breath. The resulting work came to exist at the intersection between art, biology, and performance.

The unicorn tapestries were used as a generative point of departure to explore the preservation and transformation of images through time, by time, and with time. Reproductions of the six tapestries were each etched into paper and then submerged into solutions of Phenol Red dye, Ferric Ferrocyanide (also known as Prussian Blue), and various forms of sodium chloride. Exhaled breath was used to encrust these images of the tapestries into physical objects which gradually crystallized and …

Claudio Perna, Ca. 1970: The Impossibility Of Wholeness, Silvia Benedetti

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis identifies two main themes in Claudio Perna’s (1938–1997) work: his use of technology to explore self-representation and his interrogation of mapping as means of knowledge. This study also situates Perna’s conceptual work in relation to his field of human geography, in the specific Venezuelan context.

Please Read, Joseph W. Anthony-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This is a semi-fictional story told through a series of fake found documents. It describes my work and thoughts through metaphor. Machines have the potential to gain self-consciousness through accumulation of errors. Creativity can be confused with randomly generated variety. The acceptance of chaos and loss of control can provide a path to enlightenment.

A Statement, Cein Watson

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis paper is a map of my studio practice. It is meant to be a resource to help the viewer read my artwork. By laying out the tools of my practice the paper gives the reader a context on how I digest and synthesis works of art. These tools range from references to art history, architecture, and a grounding in traditional craftsmanship. The result is a culmination of influences that situate the work and give the reader an intimate understanding of the final art exhibition. With this map, the viewer can navigate the processes and contexts of the artwork.

Tailoring Student Learning: Inquiry-Based Learning In The Elementary Art Classroom, Jeffrey Melvin Cornwall

Theses and Dissertations

This research study explored the role of the elementary art educator in facilitating individualized learning experiences for students in contrast to a standardized culture of education. The methodology of a/r/tography was used to investigate the role of the teacher, as well as artist and researcher, within an inquiry-based art curriculum for a fifth grade class. Inspired by contemporary art practices, students used inquiry to investigate, research and experiment with their ideas around an integrated topic of compare and contrast as found within the fifth grade science and language arts standards. Students created a work of art as a means to …

A Space For The Contemplation Of A Sacred Subject, Katie West

Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses a Fine Art Master thesis exhibition. The show was on the topic of the Latter-day Saint doctrine of a Mother in Heaven. It contains a project statement detailing the theological meanings and reasons, an overview of the visual elements of the exhibition, and a section contextualizing the exhibition within the art world.

A Theory Of Presence: Bringing Students And Art Closer Together, Joshua T. Hobbs

Theses and Dissertations

In seeking to create a richer learning environment in a junior high art classroom, the author develops a theory of presence. Closely connected to object-centered learning, a theory of presence in the art classroom places value on students being in the presence of, interacting with, and responding to artworks, artists, and other individuals and objects from the visual arts community. The author then describes how curricular plans are influenced by this theory of presence. Using an action research methodology, the author engages in the spiral process of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting on curriculum that explores the possibilities of connecting …

New Genres In The Art Classroom: Shifting Ideas And Identities, Alyssa Grant Ridge

Theses and Dissertations

Secondary art education programs primarily offer courses in traditional mediums like drawing, painting, sculpture, and ceramics. In addition to valuing these traditional art forms, art education research supports integrating new technologies and media in the classroom. However, the possibilities of creating an exclusively contemporary, new genres curriculum have yet to be explored. This study examines the affordances and limitations of a high school-level new genre curriculum and describes how students reacted to these new genres and how their perceptions of art, student-peer relationships, and artist identities changed over time. By introducing students to new genres, the author found students expanded …

Curating The Abandoned School: Voices Of Youth In An Alternative High School Art Class, Kellie Marie Fay

Theses and Dissertations

An art teacher at an alternative high school examines how self-study and narrative influence art making in the classroom. This teacher-researcher-artist uses a/r/tography to study more deeply her role in creating curriculum that deals with students' stories as a meaning-making device. The a/r/tographer identifies herself as a type of teacher-curator of student narratives and explores the nuances of her particular research site. As the researcher more closely examined her own identity as artist, teacher, and researcher, she came to understand that this research was largely a study of self. Specifically, she more closely scrutinized her struggle with the role of …

Including The Arts In The Generalist Classroom, Camille Hone

Theses and Dissertations

Including the Arts in the Generalist Classroom is an integrated arts curriculum within a 6th grade classroom in Eagle Mountain Utah. This project describes the process of putting an art curriculum into an elementary 6th grade where there is no art specialist and no means of getting one. This project focuses on four lessons that have been written using the 6th grade Science and Social Studies Utah Core. Each lesson is written to ensure that a teacher and/or a parent volunteer can give instruction without any prior knowledge of content and/or technique in art.The Appendices describe the curriculum and more …

Oh, Lazarus…Whom God Has Helped, Wala Ka Bang Hiya!, Lazaro Juan

Theses and Dissertations

Art as a means and a vehicle towards a higher form of consciousness, and state of awareness to communicate complex issues and a way of healing. Within the context of the decolonization process.

Belt Melon Grass, Andrew M. Francis

Theses and Dissertations

This essay was written largely after the completion of my thesis exhibition which shares its title. An integral aspect of the work was the after-­hours maintenance it required. Below I describe the unforeseen personal significance that labor came to hold and the way in which it functioned as a healing ritual. Through this work, and those leading up to it, I have a reinvigorated awareness of the importance of therapy as an aspect of my art­making, of which this thesis is a testament.

Speed And Resolution In The Age Of Technological Reproducibility, Shawn Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The rate of acceleration of the biologic and synthetic world has for a while now, been in the process of exponentially speeding up, maxing out servers and landfills, merging with each other, destroying each other. The last prehistoric relics on Earth are absorbing the same oxygen, carbon dioxide and electronic waves in our biosphere as us. A degraded .jpeg enlarged to full screen on a Samsung 4K UHD HU8550 Series Smart TV - 85” Class (84.5” diag.). Within this composite ecology, the ancient limestone of the grand canyon competes with the iMax movie of itself, the production of Mac pros, …

Trying To Exit Here, Leigh C. Suggs

Theses and Dissertations

There is an in-between space during the act of seeing. The in-between space lies on the spectrum of the reality in front of us and what our brain tells us. It is within this suspended moment an individual can experience an unaltered and unaffected vision. While this moment is fleeting, it defines the highest peak of personal experience. It is my belief no two people will ever experience the same vision during this suspended time. And after it passes, the sigh/vision can never be the same. We are constantly bearing witness to the inexpressive, and this fleeting moment is something …

Figure And Flora, Caleigh Eveleth Goold

Theses and Dissertations

‘Figure and Flora’ is an exploration of the visual relationship between the human figure and various forms of plant life. It is an exercise in appreciation of the subtle nuances in color, shape and form of the human body which can bear a striking resemblance to vegetation that one would encounter in everyday life. Because we are such visual creatures, recognizing the aesthetic similarities can be an effective first step in realizing the inherent and biological similarities as well. This exhibit is meant to remind people that they are related to many more varied life forms than they may be …

Expanding Eco-Visualization: Sculpting Corn Production, Jennifer E. Figg

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation expands upon the definition of eco-visualization artwork. EV was originally defined in 2006 by Tiffany Holmes as a way to display the real time consumption statistics of key environmental resources for the goal of promoting ecological literacy. I assert that the final forms of EV artworks are not necessarily dependent on technology, and can differ in terms of media used, in that they can be sculptural, video-based, or static two-dimensional forms that communicate interpreted environmental information. There are two main categories of EV: one that is predominantly screen-based and another that employs a variety of modes of representation …

The Orphanage Of Things: A Narrative Of Abandonment, Malaz Elgemiabby

Theses and Dissertations

In Sudan, 110 babies are abandoned in the streets of Khartoum every month. The majority of abandoned children are born out of wedlock. Young women with illegitimate pregnancies are often ostracized by their families and society, and the lack of emotional, financial and legal support has led many to take desperate measures, including the abandonment of their children. Relinquishing mothers exist like ghosts in Sudanese society. The only evidence of the mother’s experience is her anonymous, abandoned child. In order to understand and examine this phenomenon, I used ethnographic performance art informed by design research practice (Performative Research Design). I …

Postcession, Evan D. Pomerantz

Theses and Dissertations

This is a series of daily writings. Each day consists of a new topic and is closed at the end of the day. The ideas presented are philosophical, humorous, rambling, lamentations, incantations, doubt-ridden, aesthetic pep talks which combine into an affective representation of my studio practice’s becoming. There will be little congruency, some stories, and a lot of parallels because that is who I am.

Play Doh's Cave And The Pursuit Of The American Cream, Becky S. Sellinger

Theses and Dissertations

Take a minute. Imagine Wiley Coyote and Road Runner are in a domestic partnership. What would that look like? Close your eyes and Pause for 30 seconds. Don’t you see? Coyote never catches up. They keep running faster and faster. Everything in the house gets swept into the whirlwind they’ve created in their paths - the books, the shelves, the bed, and the desk lamp. Their circling movement creates a vacuum, which ultimately causes the entire structure to implode upon itself.

This text is an examination of my work and its relationship to the economic and the domestic. The metaphor …

New Patriarchies: A Turbulence Of Source And Subject, Stephen Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

Experiencing a turbulence of source and subject in the variable inversions and supports of one source to another--the wreck of the U-352, Carpeaux’s Ugolino and his Sons, a movie poster for J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible, and Cassiopeia mythology--these four sources as sons, in sacrifice to and surviving by way of “daddy” documentation, are here refigured to reenact and critique the patriarchally recreational, monumental, cinematic, and mythological infrastructures supporting the sources of this work and thereby serving to critique the newer patriarchies to which these sources and their subjectifications here seek to cross consumptively dead end. Following three public …