Fine Arts Commons^™

Below The Neck, Above The Knees, Desiree Dawn Kapler

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis explores the act of violation in the context of trauma and healing through the use of personal narratives and experimental film. My research allows personal storytelling to transform into a larger and more universal theme of generational trauma and dysfunction. Through a feminist lens, I challenge social norms of body autonomy for the sick and abused, capitalism’s social effects on the poor, and passed down maternal lessons from the women who are doing the best that they can with the lives and opportunities that they have been given.

This work is created in spite of the labels my …

We, Wesley B. Chavis

Theses and Dissertations

Here is an exploration of the intergenerational Southern Black American Body, a complex collection of persevering souls of the past, present, and faith-driven future. Through the sensorial physical encounters of my body, sometimes recalled through the physicality of another, I locate the labor to belong, the complexity of submission, sensual awakening, displacement, absence, and the expansive spiritual force of the collective body.

Using documentary additions of archived family photos and journal entries, I expand and abstract the occurrence of my presence through non-linear time, connecting the personal to the complex communal. These documents are the slippery prophecies of my being, …

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

"Perhaps," She Said, "Looking Itself Could Be An Antidote.", Sarah Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Pushzoompantilt, A Letter To Grandmother, Karl Y. Schwiesow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

pushzoompantilt is an ongoing body of work that considers the relationship of handmade art objects with found and altered objects of utility and leisure. Addressed herein is an explanation of this relationship between clay form and altered objects seen through the lens of open and closed systems and fixedness.

Radical Dissonance And Haunted Gestures: Rupture And Reverence In The Artwork Of Aja Mujinga Sherrard, Aja M. Sherrard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper serves to establish the studio practice of Aja Mujinga Sherrard within the framework of conceptual art, touching on the flexible use of media, the subversive or political nature of the work, and its relationship to movements and disciplines such as Feminism and Poststructuralism.

The section entitled “Race and Incoherence” addresses the practice of Radical Dissonance—or the creation of ruptures within commonly accepted concepts and social constructions—through the Costuming Kinship Series, 13≠12≠12.2 (Genetics Project), and Body Double. The section entitled ”Art, Loss, and the Unspeakable” traces an emotional shift in her work and speaks directly to the pieces …

The Prescribed West, Evan M. Hauser

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Prime, Perform, Recover, Patrick Harkin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the formal and conceptual framework of my artistic practice as it culminated in the installation of my thesis exhibition, Prime, Perform, Recover. My exhibition seeks to operate as an analysis and critique of the separation inherent in media presentation and rhetoric surrounding natural disasters.

I utilize the aesthetics and vocabulary of disaster capitalism and prepping culture in order to pose direct questions about ecological and social change. I examine the role of images within mass media image production as an all encompassing Now-Time. In this paper I describe frameworks that my practice proposes as potential solutions to …

Laban For The Actor: The Mind/Body Connection, Margaret C. Buckner

Theses and Dissertations

When it comes to actor training in higher education, an extremely strong emphasis is placed on understanding the voice and interpreting the text. While some institutions do incorporate movement courses into the curriculum of the students, many do not serve the learning actor in the most effective way. The work of Rudolf Laban is a way to strengthen the curriculum taught to actors, specifically in regards connecting actors to their bodies. This thesis discusses and analyses the use of Laban’s movement theory in the movement classroom, and focuses on the most effective way of presenting the material to the student. …

Love Learning In Porous Skin, Sarah Coote

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis questions our construction of identity through objects. In small sculptures and paintings with collage and various found materials, I insist on the touch and intimacy that our bodies afford us in the world saturated with surface content, screens, and digital profiles. My criticism is self-reflective and curious, an attempt based in research and process in hopes of understanding further the complexities of absorbing in a body and dressing a surface. I have been focused on the formative years of growing up with objects and tools that shaped a concept of individual self and how the imposition of the …

Valhalla In Escrow, Deena Lilygren

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

A collection of short stories.

Letter From The Editor, Nick Alti

The Laureate

Letter from Editor Nick Alti.

The Laureate, 16th Edition (2017)

The Laureate

Table of Contents

Dangle, Megan Murphy

Redamancy , Danielle Favorite

A Lesson, Mark Majcher

Sink in the Morning, Andrew Heuermann

Lie, Kaylie Hanson

Suffragette Colors, Tenley Sablatzkey

The Big Community, Jackson Freeman

Small Thing, Jared Sebastian

Untitled, Casey Grooten

The Diary of a Young Girl and Jeff Mangum, Andrew Heuermann

Prescribed Meaning, Ali Orlandi

An Open Letter to the Father Who was There, Amber Slack

Genesis and Chance, Austin Wines

The Morning Pachamama was Born, Megan Murphy

Her Black Braids Broke Down, Casey Grooten

Toes and Paint, Nick Alti

Rest, Maura Sands

Money is a Crime; Rape is a Personal …

First Drawing Done After Open Heart Surgery, Casey Grooten

The Laureate

No abstract provided.

Trauma And Recovery: A Confessional Process, Mia Siracusa

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper is about a confessional painting series, which appropriates Abstract Expressionist techniques, and is on geometric canvas reliefs. The main focus through out the series is the process of my recovery from a traumatic event and the process of the creation of a language through abstraction.

Elements, Stephen Anthony Geffre

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis consisted of a gallery exhibition titled “Elements” featuring sculpture created by Stephen Geffre for his Master of Arts in Sculpture from University of Minnesota-Mankato, located in Mankato Minnesota. The exhibition ran from October 16, 2017 to October 31, 2017. The artwork explored sacredness---sacredness rooted in the natural, sacredness rooted within the minds of human kind, sacredness in the form of the classical elements Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

All the work was created in part with material that was going to be thrown away or sold at a fraction of its cost because of its imperfection.

Drawings For Paintings In The Age Of Rembrandt, Saskia Beranek

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.

Wake The Devil, Ricardo Ruiz

Theses and Dissertations

You could only bury a body so deep before the seasons decided you would join it . Topsoil so desperate for affection it shakes to remind me that I was once and am loved .

I linger in the southwestern sky , burgundy to violet , with Neil Young playing faintly in the distance as my father calls me home .

Zen And The Art Of The Journey, Brenda Christian Brown

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The works in this exhibition represent the transdisciplinary research and practices used to explore humanitarian concerns with stress and suffering. It is a Buddhist fact that all humans suffer. And it is the inner journey that allows the guidance out of suffering and towards freedom. For me, the recognition of suffering was there since infancy. I have spent a lifetime searching for answers through the philosophy of Zen, the study of Buddhism (as religion), the study of neuroscience, the arts (both liberal and fine), the practice of meditation, and the psychological process of mindfulness.

The attention to the present moment …

Taking In: A Juried Selection Of Undergraduate Photography 2017, 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.

Selene, Sarah Justice

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

My MFA Thesis Exhibition, Selene (Greek goddess of the moon), is an autobiographical journey through self- discovery, recognizing the power of my past seductive and destructive behavior surrounding sexuality. This current body of work serves as a metaphor for “moth to a flame” analogy and “if you are not careful the flame can burn you”.

My journey through personal healing from past traumatic events has taught me that my vulnerability is what breeds my strength. Ways that people navigate life being vulnerable and how they heal from wounds stemming from abuse, addictions, broken hearts, and loss varies among people. I …

A Theory Of Veteran Identity, Travis L. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--English

More than 2.6 million troops have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, surveys reveal that more than half feel “disconnected” from their civilian counterparts, and this feeling persists despite ongoing efforts, in the academy and elsewhere, to help returning veterans overcome physical and mental wounds, seek an education, and find meaningful ways to contribute to society after taking off the uniform. This dissertation argues that Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans struggle with reassimilation because they lack healthy, complete models of veteran identity to draw upon in their postwar lives, a problem they’re working through collectively …

Lesson Plans Integrating Art With Steam: Providing Students With Universal Education Experience, Karolyn L. Turner

Theses and Dissertations

With funding being cut in public schools, many students are no longer being exposed to the arts. Studies have shown that integrating art with math and science leads to a more successful student. As an alternative to classroom instruction, museum education can be used to not only develop art skills, but can also assimilate those skills into math, science, and engineering. As an intern at the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia, I developed lesson plans for teachers to use in the classroom. Alternatively, students may come to the museum to participate in the activities. The lesson plans will be presented …

Collecting And Selecting, Masy Hebert

LSU Master's Theses

In Collecting and Selecting, I am exploring the way others adorn their lives and how these elements add up to emblematize the keeper of the treasures. With linoleum relief prints and drawings, I compose a unique type of portraiture that reveals the parallel identity between the way we dress ourselves and our living spaces. Within my process, I capture moments with photographs, draw, carve, print, and cut out the elements that hold a presence of the owner. Utilizing a heightened sense of contrast with black and white images, the textures and details of these objects come alive. Each gallery wall …

Damon Hill, Elizabeth Welch

LSU Master's Theses

“Damon Hill” acts as a physical record of the family folklore of a group of people formed by landscape and kinship. As a member of this group, I have translated my family’s stories into a visual narrative as a way to process my own identity in relation to our shared identity. The focus of “Damon Hill” rests primarily on the lives of my female predecessors, as a way for me to contribute their unique voice to the overarching feminine narrative. I incorporate the visual representation of traditionally feminine handicrafts in order to relay their stories through the primary means of …

Lines, Tina Korani

LSU Master's Theses

Sometimes one is unaware of one thing: a rule, a boundary, a difference — all of which we cannot see with our eyes, but learning certainly present. When one rcognizes the reality of it, decisions are made. Those decisions shape the world as we know it. “Beyond the Lines” is an exploratory project that aims to increase one’s awareness and reveal that humans are whole beings that can surpass barriers that life places in front of them. This thesis explores human connections and separations, by using the concept of dots and lines, in ways both literally and metaphorical. Through visual …

Dislocation, Brian Randall Deppe

LSU Master's Theses

This photographic project, Dislocation, seeks to document the current state and decline of Cortana Mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The mall was built in 1976 during the height of shopping mall construction and was one of the largest shopping centers in the country with five anchor stores and 139 retail spaces. Now, just 48 stores and two anchor stores remain open. This high vacancy rate and deterioration of the mall is due to suburban flight, the building of new shopping centers in southern Baton Rouge, and changing consumer trends, which has led to malls closing across the country. My photographs …

Oblivion, Michael Stumbras

LSU Master's Theses

I am fascinated by the myriad ways humans construct meaning in the face of existential uncertainty. For the exhibition Oblivion, I endeavor to provide a gallery experience, a body of metaphorically charged functional vessels, and a number of ritualistic accoutrements that address death, futility, and the passage of time as it inexorably flows toward obsolescence. The process of handcraft and the method of firing that I employ highlights the absurdity of the endeavor of the handmade: the seemingly futile and interminable quest for perfection and meaning. This futilitarian pottery exaggerates the errors of the hand and flaunts artifacts of the …

Chronicle & Character, Taryn Moller Nicoll

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis paper, I argue that the works in the exhibition 'Chronicle & Character' aim to demonstrate artistic citizenship and can contribute positively to society by provoking conversation about universally applicable (but often uncomfortable) topics. Experts such as David J. Elliot state that being an artistic citizen means that one’s concerns as an artist must shift from issues constrained to the artist alone to those of the artist’s surrounding community. The exhibition 'Chronicle & Character' contains works that serve as detailed chronicles of the medical or physiological experiences of my loved ones. This body of work presents how three …

Trace, Naomi Katy Louise Clement

LSU Master's Theses

The pots in the exhibition Trace speak both to my desire to belong, to connect to my beginnings, and yet to still trace my own path forward; they are about making connections and missing connections. Through these pots I ask questions of myself and the world around me in an attempt to negotiate the edges of my life. How do I feel connected and present in my own life and relationships? How do I feel connected to my family and my roots, while still finding my own path? What does it mean to belong in a family that is divided …