Art Practice Commons^™

The Kanga, A Cloth That Reveals- Co-Production Of Culture In Africa And The Indian Ocean Region, Phyllis A. Ressler

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Kanga is one of Africa's least understood textiles. As a simple cotton, colorful, hand and machine printed cloth it embodies dynamic historical co-production of culture throughout African and Indian Ocean trade networks. Exploring African mercantile trade history, the coproduction and exchange of iconography, the diverse use and meanings of the Kanga, suggests a valuable discursive role for this textile. Despite its longevity of more than 150 years, its significant role in creation of identities, and its contribution to communication through design and social meaning, the Kanga, receives limited attention in textile research. Though seen by many as a simple …

The Parenthetical Notation Method For Recording Yarn Structure, Jeffrey C. Splitstoser

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Until now, describing yarn structure has been more art than science, especially for complex yarns and cordage like those encountered at Cerrillos, a Paracas (ca. 900-100 B.C.E.) site in the Ica Valley of Peru, where yarns and cordage frequently involve multiple colors, sub-structures, and materials (e.g., Image 1). My early attempts at describing yarn structures using notation were essentially undecipherable to others. Likewise, narrative methods proved too wordy and no less confusing. (For instance, a narrative description of the structure of specimen 2001-L185-B1654- S001, a rope-like yarn pictured in Images 2 and 3, would be: Twelve Z-spun-singly-ply yarns Ztwisted with …

The Twenty-First Century Voices Of The Ashanti Adinkra And Kente Cloths Of Ghana, Carol Ventura

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Craft production and use are continually adapting to meet the needs of consumers and the market in order to survive. The Adinkra and Kente cloths of Ghana are no exception, having maintained their visibility and viability by addressing changing and challenging economic and political realities. Fabric strips are sewn together to produce rectangular Adinkra and Kente cloths that are wrapped around human bodies in styles determined by gender and rank. These cloths are not only beautiful, but communicate as well. Old and new symbols representing proverbs, beliefs, and politics are woven into Kente and printed onto Adinkra cloths. Commemorative fabrics …

Queen Alexandra’S 1902 Coronation Gown, Donald Clay Johnson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Queen Victoria's wearing black mourning clothes for 40 of the 63 years of her reign prompted much discussion between fashion-setting Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra about what should the new queen wear for her coronation, the first state occasion in which they, as king and queen, could define taste and fashion for what was to become the Edwardian era. With such a long interval of time since the last coronation there were no strong expressions of traditional attire for such a ritual occasion which prompted the new king and queen to think expansively about the roles and functions the coronation …

Samplers, Sewing And Star Quilts: Changing Federal Policies Impact Native American Education And Assimilation, Lynne Anderson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Illustrating the U.S. federal government's changing policies on the assimilation of Native American children is the role of needlework instruction in the schooling of Indian girls. Described and discussed are three examples of 19th and 20th century policy, with emphasis on the textiles resulting from those policies. Early 19th century policy supported mission schools for Indians. Learning to sew was a valued domestic skill in 19th century female education, culminating in the making of a needlework sampler. This focus was adopted in mission schools, illustrated by Christeen Baker's 1830 sampler stitched at the Choctaw Mission School in Mayhew, Mississippi. Shortly …

Egan, Charlotte P. (Grider), 1920-2014 (Sc 2569), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2569. Letter of Charlotte (Grider) Egan, Sellersburg, Indiana, to Sue Lynn McDaniel and Sandra Staebell, WKU Special Collections Library and Kentucky Museum. She thanks them for publishing an article on her late sister, Dorothy Grider, in Landmark Report (Bowling Green, Kentucky) and comments on the recognition due her sister for her work as a commercial artist.

Elkin, Gwendolyn, 1916-2009 (Sc 2596), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2596. Holographic paper titled “Joel Tanner Hart” by Gwendolyn Elkin, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Biographical paper highlights Hart’s life, career and techniques as an sculptor.

Not Just A Symbol But A Status Symbol, Summer D. Winston

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I create art, not out of a deep understanding of the world around me, but out of a lack of one. Human psychology, motives, behaviors, stressors, intentions and identity are the themes that boggle me the most. Therefore, it is only natural that my work would be fueled by the questions these themes pose. In the past I sought to understand what pushes people to make certain choices and how can the world around us affect the formation of identity. Currently I wonder about identity in terms of what do people use to form and reinforce identity both real and …

Student Autonomy: A Case Study Of Intrinsic Motivation In The Art Classroom, Downi Griner

Theses and Dissertations

How might a curriculum based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) influence student motivation and art making in a 9th grade art classroom? The researcher devised a negotiated curriculum called The Master Artist Program based on the SDT theory of intrinsic motivation. The implementation of this curriculum was designed to explore the question of how a curriculum based on SDT theory would influence student motivation and art making in a 9th grade art classroom. This curriculum was implemented in a ninth grade art class on an optional basis for the course of nine weeks. The results of data analysis, illustrated by relevant …

Aha'aina, Tali Alisa Hafoka

Theses and Dissertations

In a Polynesian feast, food is a metaphor for the essence of Polynesian culture—giving without self regard. As Polynesian culture evolves, its aesthetic standard must necessarily change. Two seemingly conflicting essentials are necessary here for the survival of culture—the evolution of the cultural aesthetic, and the constancy of the culture's essence. One might consider as a metaphor the evolution of a tree through the seasons—though the foliage blooms, changes colors, dies and grows brittle, falls and regenerates, etc., the roots remain constant—ever nourishing the tree and ever supporting it and holding it up. As with the tree, the essence of …

Fashionable Art, Lacey Kay

Theses and Dissertations

My final thesis exhibition, Fashionable Art, opens up a link between art and fashion. I used clay as my primary medium to create hyper-realistic handbags in the style of Trompe l'oeil. I am interested in placing art in fashion settings and fashion in art settings. In the show, I placed many purses on pedestals for a gallery setting, in a glass case for a purse shop setting and also placed large photos in a fashion photo shoot setting. I am concerned with creating an environment that celebrates the handbag from just an accessory to an art object. By using …

The Narrative Inquiry Museum:An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Narrative And Art Museum Education, Angela Ames West

Theses and Dissertations

For art to become personally meaningful to visitors, museums need to view art interpretation as a narrative inquiry process. General museum visitors without art expertise naturally make meaning of art by constructing stories around a work to relate to it. Narrative inquiry, a story based exploration of experience, fits into contemporary museum education theory because it is a constructive and participatory meaning making process. This thesis examines how art museums can build upon visitors' natural interpretive behaviors, by employing art-based narrative inquiry practices and using the work of art as a narrative story text. Individuals learn when their personal narrative …

Where There Is Design, Elizabeth A. Crowe

Theses and Dissertations

Giving up a certain amount of control can be healthy, productive, and natural. Nature has an important part to play in our lives, and nature is random even as it obeys natural laws. In the same way, creating ceramic objects requires obedience to the laws of nature even as it benefits from freedom from control. Creation requires a certain amount of letting go of control, allowing nature to take its course, and recognizing when good things happen. I have learned that my most successful pieces emerge when I combine conscious control with serendipity. The work in this show reflects that …

Blanket Statements, Issue 108, Summer 2012

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 108, Summer 2012

Gear Driven, Richard Cammarata

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Merging the past and the present and the simplistic with the complex, form the foundation of my work. My sculptural work in ceramics depicts hybridized versions of distinct pieces of machinery that have been distorted and fused together to create ambiguous forms that offers a sense of curiosity and draws attention to each piece. These pieces are reminiscent of the types of rusted and decayed parts I found lying around my grandfather's truck yard when I was a boy. Machinery appealed to me not only because of the interesting forms but also because of the visual texture and enduring quality …

Taxidermy Of Thought, Jason Walker

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Sculpture is how I bring to life the dark corners of my mind. There have always been images of creatures, geology, and botanical life swirling around my head. Images that often include spires of exoskeleton, creeping tendrils searching for sustenance, or something that moves in an unnatural way. After years of envisioning and automatically sketching out these "things" it is beginning to get a bit crowded in there. It was time to excise this world in my mind and bring it into existence through my hands.

Using many different materials, including plaster, wire, paper mache, epoxy, urethane resins, many different …

Reviving Blacksmithing With An Open Die Forging Hammer, Will B. Doerting

Kaleidoscope

No abstract provided.

Plaschke, Paul Albert, 1880-1954 (Sc 576), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 576. Letter from Paul Albert Plaschke, Louisville, Kentucky, to Henry Hardin Cherry, President of Western Kentucky State College, Bowling Green, Kentucky, relating that Plaschke is sending a painting-- “Capitol Hill, Frankfort, Kentucky”–for the Kentucky Building.

Portraits, Nicholas J. Bontorno

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a documentation of and supplement to my thesis project, which is on display in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium Gallery from April 2 - May 25, 2012. The seven paintings on display are included in this report are found on the following pages:

Leann (18”x 24”) …………………………………………………………..9

Claire (28”x 36”) …………………………………………………………..10

Janell on a Couch (48”x 60”) ……………………………………………..11

My Dad in Winter (84”x 96”) ……………………………………………..13

Mel in Springtime (84”x 96”) ……………………………………………..14

Man on a Horse (48”x 60”) ………………………………………………..15

Danny Holding a Cat by the Ocean (28”x 36”) ……………………….…..15

Mapping Creativity: An A/R/Tographic Look At The Artistic Process Of High School Students, Bart Andrus Francis

Theses and Dissertations

A high school visual art educator, along with 20 students enrolled in this teacher/researcher's Advanced Placement (AP) studio course, investigated the processes involved in creating artwork. Understanding artistic processes beyond skills and techniques is significant for curriculum development, but it is also key in conceptualizing art as a way of knowing. The arts based research strategy utilized in this study was a/r/tography, which focuses on the interconnectedness between artist, researcher, and teacher/learner. This highly reflective form of action research allowed the researcher and students to uncover new understandings of what it means to be an artist-researcher through a combination of …

Effluvia And Aporia, Emily Ann Melander

Theses and Dissertations

My final thesis exhibition, Effluvia and Aporia, explores impermanence, loss and uncertainty. I use materials and images in a poetic way, where there is a link between what the work is and what it means. I use looped videos with images of water, light, and dissolving clay to invite a meditative state. I also use materials like tissue paper, paper-mache, and paper thin porcelain tiles to invite fragility and complexity into the viewer's experience. I am concerned with creating an interactive environment that allows for a multiplicity of responses and interpretations from each viewer depending on their unique perceptions. …

Rembrandt Van Rijn's Jewish Bride: Depicting Female Power In The Dutch Republic Through The Notion Of Nation Building, Nan T. Atwood

Theses and Dissertations

Many art historians have debated the identity of the couple in Rembrandt's the Jewish Bride (1667). The painting is most often identified as an Old Testament theme. This is due to the seventeenth-century Dutch practice of using biblical "types" as ideal models for the structuring of the new republic founded on the Israelite ideology of nation building. Three of these biblical female types that have been separately associated with the female figure in the Jewish Bride are, Rebecca, Ruth, and Esther. As these biblical women represented different notions of power through their respective narratives, this thesis argues that Rembrandt deliberately …

Cheng-Yung Kuo Interview, Matthew Pranica

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Cheng-Yung Kuo was born and raised in Taiwan. He immigrated to the United States 11 years ago to study art. Enrolling in a community college on the south side of Chicago he graduated with honors as a Phi Theta Kappa All-USA Academic Team Nominee in 2006. He transferred to the School of Art Institute of Chicago to receive his Bachelors of Fine Arts. In 2009 he received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from SAIC. Now three years out of college, Cheng-Yung Kuo works at a company called Primitive and works on his personal artwork on the side.

These …

Invisible Cities: Photographic Fictions Of Architecture, Maria Levitsky

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The artist's process in which she examines the built environment through the medium of black and white photography. By tracing the trajectory of her awareness of architecture from her early career as a dancer, to the making of photographic images, the artist illuminates the process of deconstructing architectural and pictorial space into fragmented yet illusionistically convincing photographic montages. Influenced by the urban localities in which she dwells, she tells the story of being captivated by the post-industrial landscape of Williamsburg, Brookyn, NY, followed by landing in New Orleans and her fascination with post-Katrina architecture. Grounded in the analog techniques of …

Debra Yepa-Pappan Interview, Alexandra Kelstrom

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio- Debra Yepa-Pappan is a contemporary Native American/Korean artist. She started out in design and photography, and then decided to use photography as her medium to create digital art. Coming from a strong Jemez Pueblo background, Debra incorporates themes of stereotyping, othering, and collectivism into her artwork. She also implements some of her Asian identity into her work to embrace her mixed identity.

Artist bio written by Alexandra Kelstrom.

David Tanimura Interview, Ryan Richter

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: From Chicago Illinois, David Tanimura has created a truly unique style all his own. What began as just fun on his fathers computer at a young age has turned into a passion for art and so much more. It’s not just collage, it’s Digital Collage.

~Ryan Richter

To learn more about David, visit: http://www.musashimixinq.com/

Spelling Gratitude: An Aesthetic Exploration, Lily Anna Burgess

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is founded in the positive psychological theory of gratitude, the experience of thankfulness and its benefits on both the individual and the community. My explorations via personal journaling, careful reflection, and engaging in craft, led me to cultivate a new definition for gratitude: present moment awareness. Using sheer fabric and the meditative act of embroidering, the language of gratitude was relearned and cultivated. My piece aims to incite further explorations in thanks.

Walking Los Angeles, Zoe R. Carlberg

Pomona Senior Theses

This paper is about my experience walking through Los Angeles County. My principal motivations were to explore what it means to be a pedestrian in an urban landscape that generally does not recognize walkers and to give value to often overlooked spaces. The paper includes a brief history of the Los Angeles region, methodology, an analysis of some other art projects that have been done about walking, and a vignette of the experience.

Kyla Hansen Mfa Thesis Statement, Kyla M. Hansen

CGU MFA Theses

My work traces the migration of meaning, mashing up cultural signifiers of place to create absurd objects and physical spaces that employ the hazy nature of belief, memory, and nostalgia. I’m interested in the exportability and malleability of experiences both culturally (through objects in movies, music, and media) and personally (through memories that change over time). My work explores the elusiveness of realness, creating slippery spaces, where the real and fake overlap, and certainty and uncertainty intermingle.

Lumen Essence, Brian Thomas Jones

CGU MFA Theses

I am intrigued by power relationships among the physical, psychological and political realms of experience. The various ways we respond to both the voluntary and involuntary restrictions of power ignite the ideas behind my investigations. The examination of power dynamics utilizing scale, spectacle and theatricality is what excites my process.

By providing an environment for immersive visceral participation, I invite the visitor to collaborate in the process of art-making through their human interaction with the formal constructions of the exhibition. Engaging the visitor in an activated, sensate experience is the artistic objective. The visitor's willingness to slow down the art …