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Articles 121 - 150 of 231

Full-Text Articles in Fine Arts

Becoming: Transformation And The Body, Melissa Mcdonald Graves Jan 2010

Becoming: Transformation And The Body, Melissa Mcdonald Graves

LSU Master's Theses

My intention is to focus on human flesh concentrating both on its imperfections as well as its beauty. Beauty is seen in the marks of age and imperfection as time forms the deepest wrinkle to the darkest mark. Cycles come in and out growing dark to light as cleansing takes place. Veils of material cover and hide inner feelings and thoughts as a shape unfolds itself in my hands. The forms soften and grow from one small stitch to a more complete shape. Successive layers of marks, represent hidden truths and human growth through the passage of time. Memories are …


Faining Pain And Care, Lindsey Elizabeth Maestri Jan 2010

Faining Pain And Care, Lindsey Elizabeth Maestri

LSU Master's Theses

Simple repetitive actions such as rocking or jumping paired with garments that contain, heighten, or limit the movements of such actions are the focus of my thesis work. Through the pieces in the show, I track these actions and plot them over a course of a lifespan, looking at the ways they define moments, change in meaning, and sometimes come to contradict themselves.


Longing: Places I Desired And Couldn't Find, Ashley Kathleen Bell Jan 2010

Longing: Places I Desired And Couldn't Find, Ashley Kathleen Bell

LSU Master's Theses

Ephemeral. Nostalgic. Absence. Transient. Transformation. Movement. Temporary. Skeleton. Momentary. Fleeting. Landscape. Cityscape. Southern Landscape. Baton Rouge. Louisiana. I paint the feeling of wearing time and the earth on my skin. The scars on the landscapes tell stories and truths marked by past generations. The imagery in my work is inspired by local places and reveals the wavering condition of the natural landscape and civilizations. Everyday places and repetitive acts make up the components of miracles. As I create, I examine ideas beyond the current condition of a specific location. Through my imagination I bring the unseen into the artworks. The …


Western Interpretation Of The Other: How The Perpetuation Of Negative Stereotypes Against Blacks Have Shaped Our Culture, Katrina M. Andry Jan 2010

Western Interpretation Of The Other: How The Perpetuation Of Negative Stereotypes Against Blacks Have Shaped Our Culture, Katrina M. Andry

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the history and nature of stereotypes propagated against blacks from the African Exploration to present day. Therefore by understanding the nature of these stereotypes one can better understand the consequences they’ve had on the black community and they’ve helped to maintain racism in America. This thesis further investigates the media’s role in maintaining racist attitudes towards blacks and how separating people in categories ranking from superior which consequentially breeds inferiority is advantageous to the majority rule in America. In conclusion the problem presented in this thesis has no concrete solution other than the viewer’s perspective after engaging …


Play Pretty, Brad Wreyford Jan 2010

Play Pretty, Brad Wreyford

LSU Master's Theses

No abstract provided.


Put The Bunny Down, And Other Short Stories, Jacqueline Mersereau Lincoln Jan 2010

Put The Bunny Down, And Other Short Stories, Jacqueline Mersereau Lincoln

LSU Master's Theses

I have always been interested in stories, and parts of every story I have heard has shaped who I am as an adult. If I’m not telling others an anecdote of a moment turned into an adventure, I am inventing adventures to tell myself. Three characters developed from the mixture of the stories I heard from true life, books and television, and what I made up for myself. Originally I simply intended these characters of a little girl, a rabbit, and a few raccoons to interact with one another and show moments of individual stories—like illustrations in an anthology that …


Site Unseen, David Christopher Carpenter Jan 2010

Site Unseen, David Christopher Carpenter

LSU Master's Theses

Site Unseen is a large-scale installation of seventy-three brightly screen-printed and painted house forms. The houses stack and interlock with one another, creating clusters of towers and archways. The forms appear to grow into one another, physically connecting the homes. Each house is printed with images of materials in various states: raw, processed and waste. These materials represent the cycle of community’s rise and fall. Beyond examining the construction of community, Site Unseen explores a moment when trust or foundation is lost in a community. In the center of the community is a gaping, spherical void. This void represents the …


Believing Is Seeing, Robin Akkerman Jan 2010

Believing Is Seeing, Robin Akkerman

LSU Master's Theses

Fantasy art is often described as being connected to the imagination. My work defines fantasy themes in combination with modern culture and real life experiences. During the creative process I have overcome a struggle with composition development and color relationships. Paintings mimic a puzzle strategy. I come up with a basic idea by inserting and taking away imagery in order for the whole image to be cohesive. Subject matter includes women of different cultures in dress, animals, pattern, sweets, and childhood experiences from the 80’s. My characters are a personification of myself as I often dream of being dressed up …


Branding The Bear, Veni Harlan Jan 2010

Branding The Bear, Veni Harlan

LSU Master's Theses

Harlan, Veni S, B.F.A., Louisiana State University, 1981 Master of Fine Arts, Fall Commencement, 2010 Major: Graphic Design Branding the Bear Dissertation directed by Professor Rod Parker Pages in dissertation, 64. Words in abstract, 350. ABSTRACT Currently due to successful restoration efforts, the Louisiana Black Bear sub-species is rebounding. Correspondingly this increase in numbers accompanies the rise of human-bear conflict. Fiction, misinformation, resentment, and devaluation of the bear as a valuable asset stand to undermine the tremendous strides made by multiple public and private agencies over the course of twenty years. Discovery revealed a lack of knowledge by the public …


This Doorknob Is On The Ceiling, Cody Tyler Arnall Jan 2010

This Doorknob Is On The Ceiling, Cody Tyler Arnall

LSU Master's Theses

This Doorknob is on the Ceiling is a thesis exhibition of sculptural works that explore the fusion of various domestic, industrial and commonplace objects. Some are new, but most of them are used and outdated. I explore and take advantage of the baggage that comes along with them, their history, their functions and what they suggest. My intention with these items is to both exploit and subvert the contextual boundaries which define them. I manipulate these objects in opposition to the way they are normally presented, encountered and understood, while leaving them recognizable. I am interested in obstructing function and …


Pensively, Kenneth L. Lantz Jan 2010

Pensively, Kenneth L. Lantz

LSU Master's Theses

Pensively, uses toys and solar powered drawing machines to present elements of movement, time, and scale. Each of the works in this exhibition invites or implies action through automation or viewer interaction. The works in this exhibit creates an environment of wonder and excitement that triggers memories of childhood and the pleasure of learning. The works investigate and discuss the responsibilities attained through maturation that keep us from recovering the sense of accomplishment we achieved with play.


Inspire: The Confluence Of Art & Design, John Mark Lawler Jan 2010

Inspire: The Confluence Of Art & Design, John Mark Lawler

LSU Master's Theses

Inspire: The Confluence of Art & Design seeks to untangle the inextricable link between graphic design and art. Graphic design has always been seen simply as an informational or sales tool; rarely is it seen as art. The work presented in this show illustrates that works created with typography can, in fact, be one and the same.


Inscapes Of Unrequited Belonging, Debangana Banerjee Jan 2010

Inscapes Of Unrequited Belonging, Debangana Banerjee

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is about my journey through life—memories of the past, experiences of the present and premonitions of the future—and how that journey, through its changing landscapes and human characters, generates images that I call inscapes. My subjects arise from very personal experiences and get fermented in my imagination to project an inner vision. I create deep intimate spaces, transitional moments of conscious and unconscious thoughts using both natural and personal imageries. In this endeavor, dark, solid and earthly colors and robust textures play a big role. I employ printmaking (woodcut), painting (oil on canvas) and poetry to express my …


Playground In-Between, Yoojeung Park Jan 2010

Playground In-Between, Yoojeung Park

LSU Master's Theses

I want to create my own Utopia that is, as a system, not an ideal community but fun in appearance, like castles in the movie Alice in Wonderland, the land of Rivendell from Lord of the Rings, or the Archigram’s architectural drawings. Even though those scenes are fictional, viewers can picture themselves into that visualized description. Once my Utopia is visualized with its detail, it is the human imagination that makes the Utopia come alive. The one who gives function to unfamiliar things are viewers not creators. Playground In-Between was my first active attempt to construct my Utopia, which was …


A Shared Silence, Jessica Alice Mowers Jan 2009

A Shared Silence, Jessica Alice Mowers

LSU Master's Theses

I took a journey home to Western New York and turned the camera’s lens on both my family and myself. 

 This thesis is a story about my family and me. I photographed my family to confront the tragic car accident that took my brother’s life and my mom’s sanity. I also acknowledged the present state of my family with these photographs by exploring the root of many of my fears and anxieties that stem from the tense and stressful atmosphere within my home as a result of this car accident.


The Expedition, Shawn Quincy Foreman Jan 2009

The Expedition, Shawn Quincy Foreman

LSU Master's Theses

I want my audience to experience awe. I use this to express my view on the argument of reality. Can reality truly be known? I further explain the use of nontraditional and traditional painting techniques to produce my paintings and drawings. My thesis entitled “The Expedition” is an abbreviated journey through my life.


Yours, Mine, & Ours, Mallory Lynn Feltz Jan 2009

Yours, Mine, & Ours, Mallory Lynn Feltz

LSU Master's Theses

Yours, Mine, & Ours utilizes found object assemblage, textiles, art multiples, and installation to present the theme of discovering personal identity through collecting, ownership, affiliations, cultural context, and transformation. This work presents to viewers a tactile experience to be investigated, touched, and transferred to their own lives. Centered on domesticity, the familiar and ordinary becomes transformed through labor-intensive processes into unique and personal works of art. Viewer participation, in all aspects of the making process, emphasizes the universal human experience of searching for comprehension of our culture. Each artwork is a metaphor for this search and how we are constantly …


Markets Rising, Philip Bastian Jan 2009

Markets Rising, Philip Bastian

LSU Master's Theses

Markets Rising is a thesis that incorporates video and the Internet to communicate with viewers, engage them, and inform them of the socially relevant topic of the 2007+ economic crisis. I intend to visually interpret the crisis in an artistic and accurate manner.


Recollections Of Paradise Lost, Japheth Alan Storlie Jan 2009

Recollections Of Paradise Lost, Japheth Alan Storlie

LSU Master's Theses

Recollections of Paradise Lost is both a memoir and a fictitious account. While the images in this series are based on actual people and events from my childhood, they are nonetheless implied narratives. Through the employment of universal symbols of childhood nostalgia such as tricycles, tire swings, toys, etc., these photographs are intended to implore the viewer to make connections with their own pasts. These narratives are meant to captivate and enchant and at the same time, disturb and haunt. Ultimately, the objective is for the audience to reconsider and re-experience the joys, fears, losses and traumas associated with childhood …


Building Codes: Mapping Technology And Tradition, James David West Jan 2009

Building Codes: Mapping Technology And Tradition, James David West

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the crossroads between printmaking and digital technology as our culture shifts towards a more digital media focused existence. As technology shifts art-making more and more away from the analog creation process towards a more digitally mediated one, printmaking’s history stands out among other traditional mediums as well suited to embrace the transition whole-heartedly. By using the analogies of the matrix, the map, and the building, this body of work creates a bridge from the historical and time-tested approaches of printmaking towards the future of the art form; a chimera of technology and tradition.


My Journey: Eight Thousand Miles Of Clouds And Moon, Frances D. Hu Jan 2009

My Journey: Eight Thousand Miles Of Clouds And Moon, Frances D. Hu

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explains the thoughts behind the body of art work that the artist produced for the MFA program. These three large paintings (72"x40") will lead viewers through a seventy-year-old woman's personal journey from the East to the West. The paintings display compositions in a bio-epic representation of traditional oil on canvas. The thesis not only expresses the artist's thoughts through formal means, but also the manner by which the emotions evolved.


Everyday, Jill Tucker Moore Jan 2009

Everyday, Jill Tucker Moore

LSU Master's Theses

In our everyday lives we are bombarded with thousands, even millions, of images. Suffering information overload, we filter out the vast majority of these impressions – the person we pass on the street or sitting in the car next to us at a stop light. We only ‘see’ those people, places and things that ‘matter’, all else becomes ‘noise’; filtered into the background of consciousness – vaguely familiar, yet simultaneously foreign, creating a ‘manageable paradigm’ or construct of the world we inhabit. I take photographic portraits every day. Not of the ‘important’ in my life, but the nondescript, often overlooked …


Accumulation, Jennifer Terbieten Mayer Jan 2009

Accumulation, Jennifer Terbieten Mayer

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is based on the accumulation of old objects found or given to me within the past year. Many are everyday general items that are considered to no longer have a purpose because they are now rusty, used and worn. This thesis is about the search to uncover my infatuation for these objects, as well as, transmit to the audience their aesthetic beauty that generates a similar appreciation.


Moppet*Sense, Tyler Rochelle Mackie Jan 2009

Moppet*Sense, Tyler Rochelle Mackie

LSU Master's Theses

Moppet*Sense is a hybrid collaboration between my adult self and a fictionalized version of me as a young girl, or moppet. Through use of craft, textiles, sound, light, color and narrative the work describes a space where both woman and moppet can join to engage with one another in a playful exchange of knowledge and experience. Saturated hues, exaggerated scale and a playful approach to the handicrafts offer the viewer an overwhelming, hyper-realistic experience of girlhood and play, which they can each physically explore and navigate throughout. The work refers to the nostalgic and domestic through its employment of familiar …


Culturally-Constructed Barriers, Hae-Jung Lee Jan 2008

Culturally-Constructed Barriers, Hae-Jung Lee

LSU Master's Theses

I have traveled to and lived in many different countries outside my native country of Korea. These opportunities have allowed me to meet diverse people and learn about their unique cultures. While living in the United States, I have experienced culture shock in such everyday activities as observing students eating food during class, wearing pajamas at school, and other similar displays of informal behavior. I was taught to follow Confucian ideas; the basic principles being to respect one¡¯s elders and to be considerate of other people. Compared to Korean culture, Western culture seems very open-minded and individualistic. Adjusting to the …


Eve's Prisoners, Tara Rene Ratliff Jan 2008

Eve's Prisoners, Tara Rene Ratliff

LSU Master's Theses

All women are the children of Eve and the children of the earth. With the work of Eve’s Prisoners, my aim was to create imagery about the transient stages of womankind and the timeless relationship the feminine ideal has with nature. We are born innocent and able to see the truth of things, but eventually we all imprison ourselves in our bodies, in language, and in our own nature. My pictures want to reconcile the innocence and the pain and to say that by accepting aging and death as part of life, we free ourselves from our own prisons.


Reservation For Two, Brian Patrick Dieterle Jan 2008

Reservation For Two, Brian Patrick Dieterle

LSU Master's Theses

Reservation for Two is an investigation of the ceramic dinner set and search to unlock its simplistic mystery. Most dinnerware settings available on the market satisfy and facilitate the action of eating, but they do not provide an experience to remember or a chance to fully taste the meal in all of its complexity. To challenge the participant and to produce a memorable experience, I have begun altering specific fundamental decisions within the traditional place setting attempting to create stimulation beyond physical gratification. Each of my experiments question specific design criteria that format the majority of dinner sets on the …


Creatures Del Monte, Alejandro Arauz Jan 2008

Creatures Del Monte, Alejandro Arauz

LSU Master's Theses

To visually represent the multifaceted hybrid identity; a multidimensional artistic approach was necessary. I considered all the physical, psychological and cultural truths of my family. I explored our relationships, our behaviors and our responses as we simultaneously identify with the Latino and Anglo North American cultures and exist within its ever-changing parameters. Two streams of thought emerged in my artwork. One explores the characteristics and bi-cultural composition of my immediate family. The other looks at recalling past and distant members of my extended family as our points of origin while identifying the visible and invisible forces that shape our characters. …


A Sweeter Life: A Celebration Of Desserts, Jennifer Gawronski Jan 2008

A Sweeter Life: A Celebration Of Desserts, Jennifer Gawronski

LSU Master's Theses

My thesis show, A Sweeter Life: A Celebration of Desserts is an exploration in using clay to create a celebratory event. Throughout my graduate studies I have been interested in creating memorable moments for my audience through the use of functional ceramic objects. The utilitarian forms are inspired by specific foods. This body of work celebrates the pleasures of springtime desserts through the use of unique table settings. Each setting has its own theme of fruit or delicacy to highlight the joy of desserts. I am interested in how desserts can be enhanced by their serving pieces and how a …


Land Alive!, Or Metamorphosis In The Sportsman's Paradise, Adam Tourek Jan 2008

Land Alive!, Or Metamorphosis In The Sportsman's Paradise, Adam Tourek

LSU Master's Theses

"Land Alive!" is best described a multimedia work. The produce of travels to the area of the Mississippi River delta, along with text-based research, formed the materials from which two evenings of participative performance were crafted. Personal narratives were used alongside evaluations of administrative programs, and the space in the Backyard Gallery was transformed using shovels, buckets, and teamwork. Found chairs, rope, and other objects, through ritualized interaction, became an aesthetic formation; everyone present worked together in the assembly of a boat, which contained the results of these interactions between myself, six volunteers, and an audience turned participants. The evenings …