College of Visual and Performing Arts
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This collection contains ETD documents from the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
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Browsing College of Visual and Performing Arts by Subject "Art"
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Item Collude Collide(2015-08-13) Hendrick, Jay; Hendrick, Jay; Crawford, PaulaCollude Collide is primarily a painting exhibition and asks axiological questions about and around painting. The objects ask questions about asking questions. The objects, when seen together are attempts at casting doubt on convictions, but also casting doubt on the concept of doubt itself.Item Conscious Objects, Infinite Capacity: A Personal Case Study With Collaborative Dialogue From Art, Neuroscience and TheologyCole McInturff, Cecilia; Cole McInturff, Cecilia; Frederick, HelenThis thesis catalog chronologically records in-studio aspects of design, construction, and a substantive major edit of a 2015 sculptural exhibition completing MFA requirements for graduation. Also, it is a case study of incremental alterations in personal consciousness experienced throughout the 2011-2015 studio process. In the style of a collaborative dialogue, alternating my own text with excerpts of thesis research from art, neuroscience and theology, it examines ways the state of an individual‘s consciousness during creating holds larger societal impact. While not seeking nor required to prove theory, I conclude that creative works conceptually based on the less defined and the more innate, which though not religious are consciously and affirmatively belief-based in some way, impact culture distinctly from art made for other (totally legitimate) reasons, including political, economic, aesthetic ones. Further, I observe such art’s impact is critical to the serious and sustained cultural commitment – or belief in commitment - necessary in a culture for creativity itself to exist.Item Innerverse(2015-08-19) Hill, Melissa; Hill, Melissa; Ashcraft, Thomas D.I am looking at the notion of contingency and how random events construct the self at any given time. The concept of the contingent self is centered on the amalgamation of experiences that one undergoes throughout one’s life. Each experience, layered upon other experiences, and the choices and outcomes that come about as a result of such experience make us human. It was a fragment attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus that started me down this path of thinking. In the fragment Heraclitus states: “We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.” By turning not only to philosophy but also to scientific theory, I look to the universe as a whole and how its constantly changing states mirror the human condition.Item Liminal GlyphsFitzpatrick, Kate; Fitzpatrick, Kate; Crawford, PaulaLiminal Glyphs, MFA thesis exhibition of Kate Fitzpatrick, was on display at Gillespie Gallery at George Mason University in Fall of 2020. The exhibition provided a space to explore the nature of language, meaning, and identity through the investigation of sign systems. This exhibition represents an inquiry into the transitional boundaries that exist in the interpretation of written language. The creation of the artist's own glyphs as script explores how sign systems play a crucial part in the construction of our own reality by defying meaning when we no longer have the key to unlock it. The resulting artwork comes from the artist's self-reflection of life experiences with language and the investigation of language philosophy.Item Self(2014-10-08) Murray, Mahogany M; Murray, Mahogany M; Endress, EdgarFrom the day we are born, we are taught to conform, to believe, to fear, to love, to want, to need. And as a result of all of those teachings we find our selves lost and confused within this conformity. We are looking for answers, seeking our own identity, searching for “self”.Item Shelf LifeGrimsby, Gregory; Grimsby, Gregory; Karametou, MariaIn the late 17th century, cabinets of curiosity reflected the birth of modern science, manifested in exotic collections of artifacts, specimens, and artworks. These precursors to modern museums juxtaposed natural science and religion, even fact and fiction. These cabinets reveled in the marvelous, the rare, and often the freakish. By aggregating all this content, visitors could experience a lifetime of amazing artifacts all at once. At the time, they must have been awe-inspiring. Shelf Life, operates in a similar way. It is a series of oil paintings and drawings that curates a fascinating assemblage of things ranging from man-made antiquities to oddities of the animal kingdom. It is about amazing things and imagined beings. Some of the content depicted exists in our world, but some does not. When both are included together uncertainly is sown. This leaves the viewer questioning, and, hopefully, engaged in a mystery to decipher the truth. Objects have meaning and symbolism. Objects become signifiers for concepts. A butterfly represents spirituality. A skull represents death. Groupings of objects form relationships and evoke meaning. This is how the oil paintings in Shelf Life speak. Each painting depicts a collection of objects that tells stories. Shelf Life is a series that sees the beauty lying at the intersection of art and science. There is the natural beauty of Ellensburg’s agate with its swirls of blue and amber. There is the textural allure of old books filled with aged parchment and bound in heavy leather and bronze. Arthropods are painted in an infinite palette from the purest blues and fiery oranges, to iridescent greens. There is beauty found in old materials and old ways of making things. Mercury gasometers and the earliest lightbulbs, instruments of 19th century science, are beautiful sculptures of glass and bronze, yet still used for science. Shelf Life curates artifacts of nature and science together. Shelf Life, is about truths, especially the “almost true” and ambiguous truths. It is about imagined beings and amazing things. It is about curiosity. It is about science and how science can be beautiful, but also ignorant, even unethical. Since little ‘t’ truth is relative, a discussion of the lens of the viewer is needed. The work of entomologist/biologist Dr. Gabriel Fain offers an essential perspective on truth in science. His experiments show how authority biases our interpretation of truth. This thesis is a field guide in the Audubon sense to the paintings and drawings in my graduate show of Spring 2017. Like a beautiful watercolor vivisection, we’ll discuss in detail the process used in my realistic paintings and drawings. The interplay of digital and traditional techniques, although not revelatory, solved many visual problems such as perspective and challenging tromp l’oeil compositions with no physical reference available. Out of this process was born a series of highly detailed paintings in the still-life mode and dozens of scientific illustrations done in ink.Item The Gray Market: Over-manufacturing, Art and the Rural/Urban DivideNolan, Matt; Nolan, Matt; White, Gail ScottThis is the written component for The Gray Market, a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art thesis exhibition and project. It provides a detailed description of the concept and body of work in the exhibition. The writing connects the work and artist to historical theories, artists, art movements and forms. Additionally, the paper reflects on the experience as a whole and poses new questions that have arisen in the process.Item The Holy RabbitBenge, Andrea; ANDiLAND; Benge, Andrea; ANDiLAND; Crawford, PaulaTHE HOLY RABBIT is an ANDiLAND short experimental film about reclaiming power over one’s body while under a constant threat of violence. A surreal hero's journey down the rabbit hole of the female grotesque to find the strength to leave an abusive relationship.Item Ties That Bind(2015-08-19) Loda, Nathan; Loda, Nathan; Crawford, PaulaI started this series with a question, what is my identity? This led me to look at my childhood influences -- playmobil toys, adventure films, and my outdoor experiences – all of which started to inform the subject matter for the paintings. These influences led me to research more about the subject’s history and in turn, my own history. From a trove of artifacts, letters, photographs and family lore, I started using stories about ancestors as the narrative in my paintings, while continuing to use my childhood toys as symbolic representations. So began my series of paintings that explore the ties that bind people, places, and histories together. The paintings create open-ended and sometimes fictitious narratives that are derived from my ancestors’ stories. For example, a number of paintings follow the life of my fourth great grand father Cornelius K. Stribling. After forty years of service in the United States Navy, he had to cope with the death of his son, John Maxwell, who had left the Union to die in the Confederate Navy. Or my great great grandfather Ebenezer Lee Perry whose brother, Grant, went west in 1893 to work for the abolitionist American Missionary Association on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Some of the recurring symbols and characters in the paintings, such as the little feathered doll I call the trickster, suggest that there is more than meets the eye, and perhaps things are not as they appear. Part of the reason for painting images or objects from the past is to call into question my own perceived understanding of history and perhaps imagine a different one. My hope is that these paintings offer an opportunity to examine the history of a country and culture that is continuously learning who it is through conflicting interpretations of shared histories.