Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Art

This paper provides commentary on my process for creating my MFA thesis show, Transluminal, a work of expanded animation. I have deconstructed the principles of animation and interwoven accounts of intimate personal experiences to explore how Transluminal breaks away from our traditional expectation of the animation form and into the material world. In Transluminal, I abstract the human body and physiological processes to create tactile sculptures that provide an immersive sensory experience for the viewer, allowing moments of intimacy, discovery, and humor. Through active viewership and the spirit of play, the work is in a constant state of becoming that reflects our own bodies' material condition and illuminates the tension between our desire for and lack of control over this constant metamorphosis.

Committee: Kenneth Rinaldo (Advisor); Alison Crocetta (Committee Member); Amy Youngs (Committee Member); Deborah Scott (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2010, College of the Arts / School of Art

Blue Meridian explores the relationship between identity and place, and investigates certain issues that arise from attempting to sculpt a portrait of a particular place. It also explores the disconnection between the artifacts or evidence of stories, narratives, or histories about places, and those experiences.This exploration in landscape portraiture is the culmination of two year's work to translate the history and environment of the artist's native home, Grand Cayman, into glass and porcelain sculptures. Most of the pieces are life-sized cast glass models of tropical water. The castings are rectangular, with flat polished surfaces, except for the tops and bottoms which have been cast to represent the glassy, wind-blown surface of water and the granulated sandy ridges of the marine floor. The colors of these castings capture the varying shades of blue-green water one might find in any tropical seascape. For example, the largest piece—a three-foot-tall, 215-pound, aqua-marine casting entitled, Blue Meridian: 80° West, Old Isaac's—looks like nothing less than a slice of tropical water sitting on the gallery floor. What gives the piece its magic is that the artist was apparently able to remove this sample of water and somehow freeze the rippled surface and the washboard pattern of the sandy bottom. Our knowledge of self is inextricably bound to our place in this world. In a sense, we are where we are from. Experiences develop our understanding of space, for as we create emotional territories we begin to define them subjectively as places. This thesis is a soliloquy on what it is for the artist to be Caymanian, from his maritime heritage to his obsession with the water that surrounds home and, in the end, how he fits into it all.

Committee: Sean Mercer (Advisor); Isabel Farnsworth (Committee Member); Paul O'Keeffe (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Geography

MFA, Kent State University, 2016, College of the Arts / School of Art

Tension in Space focuses on the truth of materials. This sculptural body of work will abandon preconceived notions about metals, glass and cement, allowing for the reference of form over function to take root and allow the viewer a meditative space within the gallery. Focusing on the story based around emphasizing the natural characteristics of weight, opacity, luster, and tension of the materials and how these materials are given life through their design and translation. Blown and cast glass sections work seamlessly along with the cast cement sections to generate a sculptural form. Exploring the visual language of metal, cement and glass through the initial translation of vacuum tubes, material shifts and working in multiples.

Committee: Davin Ebanks (Advisor); Isabel Farnsworth (Committee Member); Demitra Ryan-Thomloudis (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics

MFA, Kent State University, 2007, College of Fine and Professional Arts / School of Music

This thesis explores my clay sculptures that celebrate the diversity of life that is revealed in natural objects and living organisms in and along the ocean and its shores. Each individual piece is inspired by the multitude of intricate details of sea-plants, coral, driftwood and ocean sea creatures that I have encountered throughout my life. The ocean is a place to explore, contemplate and relax, enjoying the variety nature has to offer. Through the process of creating, my work is at once familiar and strange, projecting a level of wonder and mystery. The pieces are static in the nature of sculpture, yet appear to possess a life of their own cultivating a unique, animated and sensuous presence. These sculptures suggest individuality, a fantasy creature that is inviting in form, texture and color. I chose ceramics as a medium to convey my ideas because of its organic composition and its ties to the environment. The pliable, plastic nature of clay allows me to be playful and spontaneous in my decision making. They are decisions that have been made to draw attention to the mysteries of the ocean and how it provides an endless source of inspiration. These sculptures are to be acknowledged as individual pieces representing a view into my nature, a nature that can be shared and enjoyed by those who are fascinated by the natural world of the ocean and the fantasy of the created object.

Committee: Kirk Mangus (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, History of Art

Jules Dalou (1838-1902) was the greatest monument-maker of the Third Republic, but he has long been eclipsed by the fame of his greatest rival Auguste Rodin. This dissertation examines how the aesthetic attributes of Dalou's public sculptures in Paris participated in the complex process of formulating republican meaning and community during the early French Third Republic. My analysis focuses on the public reception of his monuments as determined not only by their iconographical content and the manifest political agendas of their creator and/or patrons but also as dependent upon their formal and stylistic characteristics as key aspects of their communicability. The dissertation begins with a discussion of sculptural theory, which established the medium as an inherently neoclassical and therefore fundamentally limited art form—a belief that resonated throughout the century and particularly influenced the creation of public monuments. I then investigate Dalou's two monumental reliefs for the Salon of 1883—La Fraternite and Mirabeau repondant a Dreux-Breze dans la seance du 23 juin 1789—which disrupted sculptural norms by Dalou's utilization of a dynamic, painterly style on the one hand, and a historical, naturalistic style on the other. In my investigation of Dalou's largest and most important public monument, the Triumph of the Republic, I engage with the theoretical work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. I argue that Dalou's break with neoclassical sculptural traditions and subsequent embrace of the work's material presence results in a monument that works through what Deleuze and Guattri call “fabulation,” rather than commemoration. The Triumph therefore has the potentiality to fabulate a republican community, due to the powerful “affect” of Dalou's style. The sculptor's next public work, the Monument to Delacroix, through a combination of its allegorical content, style, and material constituted a kind of visual affirmation of the most fundamental D (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrew Shelton (Advisor); Lisa Florman (Committee Member); Christian Kleinbub (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1977, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1917, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

MFA, Kent State University, 2021, College of the Arts / School of Art

In my work I am interested in how objects capture a sense of ownership and record memory to be a conduit to share my experiences with the external world. Drywall, foam, carpet and other materials associated with the domestic space reference a location that continues to collect residue of change as generations shift over time. Mass produced and fabricated objects collect a sense of history with use that become nuanced from person to person. Experiences are often built with a physical interaction with a person, place or thing. Through the creation of my sculptures, there is a tangible transfer of experience or action into an object. Through looking and seeing formal relationships in my work, I build meaning in a way that has similarities to the experience of reconstructing a personal memory. My sculpture acts as containers for memory metaphorically and physically. This is often emphasized with the use of items like bags, shelves, and boxes that hold and carry things we find important. There is a tension between the archival materials like ceramics and plastic and the temporal objects like food, or the inclusion of dead bugs that touch on a sense of loss. The erasure of color, or the evidence of use in a plastic bag or a scuffed board provide a notion of a hand that has interacted with the objects and is now absent. The perceived sentimentality or potential ephemerality of an object limits your access to only looking at the work. This precarious sensibility in my work attempts to form relationships between the things we have an understood history through touch and the objects we may have not be allowed to touch growing up.The irreverent handling and placements of objects pay attention to the rough, unrefined qualities of reality and the clearity we gain as adults through the loss of innocence and gained wisdom. Ultimately my work is a vehicle of reflection of my own past experiences. By seeing them through a new lens, it allows me to dissect and share experiences (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Peter Johnson (Advisor); Davin Ebanks (Committee Member); Shawn Powell (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2021, Studio Art

In a single moment, Nothing became Something and Notymseh was. What happens when our own perception of oneself comes in conflict with the way others perceive us? Do opposing perceptions find resolution, or do they grow farther and farther apart? Came To Be explores these questions and other themes related to identity, spirituality, and relationships in a mythicized personal narrative through written, illustrated, printed, and sculptural means.

Committee: Melissa Haviland (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Art

I am a record-keeper of disposable objects that live to be discarded. Such materials include one-and-done supplies like packing materials, sanitation products, and household cleaning supplies. Where contemporary culture views these objects as a means to an end, my work establishes value in them as the end, themselves. In this way, I elevate daily `garbage' to a fine art standard. 
 I use a variety of print media to keep these records including silkscreen, lithography, intaglio, and relief printing, which take the final form of prints, books, collages, installations, and video animations. Whether printing the physical object as a relief, exposing the object onto a screen, or imprinting its form onto a stone, the texture and shape of the material create the most compelling mark that I strive to document.
 The prevalence and quantity of disposable materials is larger than life, and the fibrous forms of these objects are detailed beyond what any human can remember. I intend to present the immensity and complexity of these `garbage' products by dwarfing the viewer through accumulation; this will take the form of an assembled overhead `sky' element that traverses the entirety of the gallery space. My practice is based upon collection and observation, and by presenting the work overhead, I ask my viewer to experience an environment rooted in trash impressions.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Advisor); Arron Foster (Committee Member); Gianna Commito (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2018, Studio Art

The violet realm is an observation of all the worlds we create consciously and unconsciously. Who needs the worlds the most? And what are the functions of those worlds? These worlds, constructed for safety, understanding or comfort shape our lives and our realities. Through artists like Pipilotti Rist, and Aleia Murawski I observe constructed narratives and simulation of emotion. Through my own explanation of my installation, the violet realm, I show intentionally constructed spaces and how they provoke emotions, namely comfort, nostalgia, fear, and a state called good weird.

Committee: Laura Larson (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

MA, Kent State University, 2015, College of the Arts / School of Art

Richard Serra completed Afangar, a sculpture sharing the name of Jon Helgason's poem, in 1990. Serra was invited to complete this work for the Reykjavik Arts Festival and was granted special permission to build the site-specific sculpture on the treeless landscape of Vesturey, the Northern landmass of Viðey, an island northeast of Reykjavik, Iceland. It is composed of nine pairs of columnar basalt stones mined from Hreppholar and transported to Vesturey. The locations of the stone pairs were selected by Serra in order to frame specific features in the surrounding landscape and were placed in a way so that a visitor can measure the changes in the land as he moves. After the sculpture was completed, Serra created numerous drawings (select drawings from the National Gallery of Iceland are discussed in this thesis) that provided him with a way to interpret what he saw. The drawings are linked to the location and underline the importance of walking and looking in Serra's work.

Committee: Carol Salus (Advisor); Reischuck Albert (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Art History

MFA, Kent State University, 2014, College of the Arts / School of Art

My work for "Biomorphia" references the connection between the human body and the farmland of areas in the southeastern United States, where I am from. The variety of colors and textures from the various atmospheric firings and surface treatments suggest landscapes and movement while accentuating the curvilinear forms. The process of creating is very important to me in that I make decisions on how my forms appear as I build them, working very intuitively. My ceramic sculptures are ultimately about movement, working spontaneously, and form.

Committee: Eva Kwong (Advisor); Isabel Farnsworth (Committee Member); Brinsley Tyrrell (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2013, College of the Arts / School of Art

The concept of my final work was that people would have a future what they wanted if they focused on their thoughts and chose appropriate thoughts to create their future at each moment. In order to place this concept I created three pieces of glass art and displayed them on the wall in the final exhibition. The objective of the show was to capture a person's thoughts and display it artistically, so they can examine their thoughts and determine how their thoughts influence their lives.

Committee: Sean Mercer (Advisor); Janice Lessman-moss (Committee Member); Kirk Mangus (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2011, Art

The goal of this thesis was to elucidate the artists' motivations, inspirations, sources, and reasons for creating visual art. An additional aim was to clarify the themes and content with which the artist works. This document serves as a reflection on the processes the artist underwent to fulfill the requirements for obtaining a Master of Fine Arts Degree. After spending two years studying visual art, maintaining a vibrant studio practice, and through a self-reflexive process of writing the author has gained clarity on the aforementioned goals of this thesis. Furthermore, this document serves as a record of the artist's trajectory and will aide in guiding the artist forward in the continued pursuit of creativity.

Committee: Mary Jo Bole (Advisor); Carmel Bucklye (Committee Member); Sergio Soave (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Families and Family Life; Fine Arts

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, History of Art

This thesis examines the sculpture Cupid Playing with a Butterfly by French artist Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810), a little-studied but significant figure of the Neoclassical period. Chapter One introduces the subject by providing a context for the Cupid's creation and addressing the issue of authorship. Chapter Two discusses the imagery on the base of the marble and pinpoints its source to antique cut gemstones. It then proposes that the base be read allegorically and that the overall iconography of the sculpture suggests the theme of virtuous Love triumphing over violent Love. Chapter Three details the ways in which Chaudet's Cupid might be conceived as a targeted attempt to secure the patronage of Josephine Bonaparte, wife of the First Consul and future Empress of France. Chaudet's use of gemstone motifs was possibly intended to appeal to Josephine's interest in jewelry. Additionally, Chaudet's attention to Rococo sculptural precedents, the work of Antonio Canova, and even roses suggests his desire to please the future empress.

Committee: Andrew Shelton PhD (Advisor); Barbara Haeger PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, History of Art

This dissertation marks the first synthetic and contextual analysis of domestic sculpture for the whole of the Hellenistic period (323 BCE – 31 BCE). Prior to this study, Hellenistic domestic sculpture had been examined from a broadly literary perspective or had been the focus of smaller regional or site-specific studies. Rather than taking any one approach, this dissertation examines both the literary testimonia and the material record in order to develop as full a picture as possible for the location, function and meaning(s) of these pieces. The study begins with a reconsideration of the literary evidence. The testimonia deal chiefly with the residences of the Hellenistic kings and their conspicuous displays of wealth in the most public rooms in the home, namely courtyards and dining rooms. Following this, the material evidence from the Greek mainland and Asia Minor is considered. The general evidence supports the literary testimonia's location for these sculptures. In addition, several individual examples offer insights into the sophistication of domestic decorative programs among the Greeks, something usually associated with the Romans. Next, several distinctly Italian elements are identified, such as the prevalence of garden sculpture and domestic sculpture used in religious context. This material has tended to be studied as separate from the Greek, in spite of the view that it was largely inspired by earlier Greek examples. The multicultural island of Delos is then analyzed. It has produced the largest corpus of domestic statues and is illustrative of both Greek and Roman architectural and decorative traditions. Following this, the final chapter tackles the thorny issue of these statues' “meaning” in light of domestic religion, suggesting that their primary purpose was as display, announcing the wealth, taste and prestige of the homeowner. This dissertation will fill an important gap in the scholarship on Hellenistic domestic decoration. This study will offer (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mark Fullerton (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, History of Art

The religious sculpture of Sichuan has become increasingly recognized as an important resource for the study of the development of Buddhist sculpture in China. One of the most important centers of Buddhist sculpture in Sichuan is the area of Dazu County where there are dozens of cliff sculpture sites. This dissertation focuses on the sculpture of Beishan (North Hill), which is one of the two primary sites with Buddhist sculpture in Dazu and the site with the longest chronology in the local area. The principal location for cliff sculpture at Beishan is an approximately quarter mile long sandstone cliff near the summit of Beishan, which is known as the Fowan ?OA (Buddha Cove). The cliff sculpture at this site consists of some two-hundred seventy odd image niches and small excavated caves that were carved over a period of roughly two-hundred sixty years from the late ninth to mid twelfth centuries. In this dissertation an attempt is made to provide an iconographical analysis of the Buddhist imagery found at the Fowan site and to show their significance within the developments in Chinese Buddhist art and the Buddhist art of the region, as well as to reveal something of the local society and Buddhist practices that underpinned the sponsorship of this imagery. The most significant iconographic subject matter that occurs at the Fowan site is discussed under the broad categories of Esoteric and Pure Land Buddhism. These include many conventionalized Buddhist iconographies from the Tang and Song Dynasties, but also feature a number of unique iconographic variations. Accordingly, the iconography of the imagery at the site is presented in light of scriptural sources, historical documents, and related imagery elsewhere, particularly within the region. The general history and chronology of the site is discussed in relation to the historical setting of the Sichuan Basin and its broader cultural environment. Description and interpretive accounts of each niche/cave, as well as tran (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Huntington (Advisor) Subjects:

MFA, Kent State University, 2009, College of the Arts / School of Art

I spent the decade preceding graduate school working a corporate job, all the while denying myself the creative life that I wanted. I chose “hambre del alma,” a phrase taken from scholar Clarissa Pinkola Estes which means “soul famine,” as part of my title to describe that past. This recent series of work represents breaking free of that cycle and coming into my own. For my thesis show, I decided to explore the relationship between my love for narrative and my sculpture. A universal dilemma in storytelling—where to begin and where to end—is the same problem faced by the writer and the visual artist. The creation of the four massive heads that comprise this exhibition, and treating their surfaces as canvasses for words and images, allowed me to document my thoughts as I worked. This permitted the incorporation of autobiographical elements into the sculptures in ways that I had not anticipated.

Committee: Kirk Mangus MFA (Committee Chair); Janice Lessman-Moss MFA (Committee Member); Brinsley Tyrrell MFA (Committee Member); Fred Smith PHD (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2008, College of the Arts / School of Art

We exist and interact within an ever-changing multitude of spaces – both real and imagined – that surround us everyday. The concept of my thesis exhibition is to visually represent three areas of mental space where human activity occurs: the space of the body, the space around the body, and the space of navigation. As we travel, we subconsciously collect and store sensory information which forms a cognitive map – actually more of an abstract collage rather than a cohesive, cartographic map. This map helps us to navigate or interact more effectively within our everyday spaces, even though the information is not remembered as a whole. Instead, our memories perceive and retain the sensory information as abstract fragments of aesthetic perception and emotional experience. These sensuous experiences develop our understanding of space, for as we create emotional territories – we begin to define them subjectively as places. It is within these mental areas that we define our identities and construct our own realities. As we gain a sense of where we are in the space, we then can begin to understand who we are. These concepts form the basis and guidelines for the creative processes in my thesis work.My thesis exhibition is an abstract representation of sensuous geographies and a visual model of cognitive perceptions. In the space of the body, I am presenting a three-dimensional model of my mental self-image through direct body casting. Presented in fragmented human form, this model explores the role that environment has in shaping our identity and our bodies. The space around the body captures the sensuous geographies of my everyday spaces as an abstract collage on the wall – consisting of both 2D and 3D mixed media, puzzle-shaped fragments. These fragments reference intuitive geographic landmark knowledge from my mental maps and create for me – a sense of place. The space of navigation – the space we travel to or journey through – is remembered in a two dimensional, abstract (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Isabel Farnsworth (Advisor); Darice Polo (Committee Member); Christine Havice (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Geography