MFA, Kent State University, 0, College of the Arts / School of Art

Loss is a major component of my lived experience and informs much of the work in my thesis exhibition, Oh, Horse Hockey! Herein, I explore my personal and familial relationship to grief. I utilize a working narrative of symbolic, metaphoric, and literal interpretations of grief. Through the use of recurring visual symbols of addiction, childhood, and celebration, I call attention to avoidance. Most glaring, however, is the inclusion of party ephemera. Its significance enlivens a contrapuntal read of this body of work, wherein the seemingly oppositional concepts of loss and celebration are made interdependent.

Committee: J. Leigh Garcia (Advisor) Subjects: Aesthetics; Behavioral Psychology; Cultural Anthropology; Developmental Psychology; Families and Family Life; Folklore; Foreign Language; Human Remains; Individual and Family Studies; Judaic Studies; Mental Health; Religious History; Slavic Studies; Womens Studies