Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Textiles and Clothing

The purpose of this research is to explore the usefulness of textiles as indicators of Hopewellian culture burial practices. Charred textiles, typically ignored by researchers, form a particular focus of this study. Fragments from Edwin Harness, Hopewell, Seip, and Tremper Mounds were studied, a labeling system was developed that will allow future researchers to locate the exact pieces examined. A Burial Practices Framework was developed that predicts the survival of textile assemblages in different burial scenarios. The use of textiles outside the cremation or final burning ceremonies, known to have occurred at Seip and Harness mounds, is indicated by the presence of uncharred fabrics at these sites. Compact fabrics made of coarse yarns likely were used to transport crematory remains to the gravesite. More open, loosely twined fabrics made of fine yarns probably served aesthetic rather than functional purposes. Because only charred materials were found at Tremper, a second burning in the communal cache, comparable to the “final ceremony” conducted at other Hopewellian sites, is indicated although not proposed in the past. Charred textiles with applied designs were identified, a feature never before reported in the literature. It is possible that other charred textiles have applied designs but these are not visible in the fabric's present condition. Textiles are not only indicators of Hopewell burial and cremation practices, but also of interaction in Hopewell societies. Fabric structure, yarn size, and yarn spacing vary between each of the four sites studied. Fabrics from Seip Mound include those made with spiral interlinking, a structure not found in the other three sites studied. While use of textiles in cremation and burial may have been prescribed regionally, as would be anticipated in a Hopewell “cult”, the particular structure of the fabric was locally determined. Local craftspeople manufactured the fabrics with particular end uses in mind; there is no partic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kathryn Jakes (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Textiles and Clothing

The research goals reported in this dissertation were twofold: to develop a protocol using non-destructive or minimally destructive methods to classify the colorants that were used prehistorically as inorganic/organic and pigment/dye, and to apply the protocol to selected textiles from Seip archaeological site, Ohio. The principle guiding the research was to adapt and sequence the analytical methods permitting the use of the smallest possible sample size which could still yield the most information. Through non-destructive forensic photography prior to any other analysis evidence for the chemical differences on the archaeological textiles resulting from the prehistoric colorant applications were revealed, which facilitated selective and purposive micro-sampling that maximized critical data acquisition while minimizing potential destruction of the artifact. Pretests on replicated materials were conducted first to assess feasibility and efficacy of selected analytical methods: photography in different lighting conditions (simulated daylight, infrared and ultraviolet), optical and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS), and inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for elemental analysis. Differences in chemical signatures on painted replicas, otherwise invisible, were confirmed by forensic photography. While working with replicas, limitations of the analytical methods were discovered and addressed to adapt the methods for the use on archaeological materials. A specific sequence of modified methods, constituting the ideal protocol, was then applied to selected prehistoric textiles. Based on the visual examination, eleven textiles from the Hopewellian Seip Mound group were selected and divided into main colored groups: (1) yellow/brown, (2) turquoise/white, and (3) charred. Each of these groups was sampled based on the results of the photography; the turquoise/white group showed patterns otherwise invisible. Optical microscopy illu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kathryn Jakes (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Human Ecology: Fashion and Retail Studies

This study delves into the global market dynamics of sustainable home textiles, particularly analyzing how environmental concerns, online reviews, and pricing influence Generation Z's purchasing decisions. As global demand for eco-friendly products increases post-COVID pandemic, understanding these factors is crucial for engaging the growing market of young, environmentally-conscious consumers. Conducted through a survey targeting individuals aged 18-27, the study assesses how these key factors shape their buying behaviors. The analysis confirms that environmental awareness strongly correlates with this demographic's motivation to purchase sustainable textiles. Additionally, online reviews emerge as a crucial determinant in shaping purchasing decisions, indicating the importance of digital feedback in the consumer journey. Furthermore, the study highlights that price sensitivity plays a significant role in influencing Generation Z's choices, pointing to a balance between cost and sustainability as a pivotal aspect of their purchasing criteria. These findings suggest that businesses in the home textile industry should prioritize clear environmental communications, manage online reputations carefully, and consider pricing strategies to engage Generation Z consumers effectively.

Committee: Tasha Lewis Dr (Advisor); Julie Hillery Dr (Committee Member); V. Ann Paulins Dr (Committee Chair) Subjects: Home Economics; Sustainability; Textile Research

Master of Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, EMC - Mechanical Engineering

Robots that are heavy enough to lift objects in coastal environments often have problems sinking into the terrain. My proposed solution is 3D printing fabric attachments onto the feet of a crab-like robot. The fabric is embedded between the layers of the 3D print. Similar techniques have been described in artistic and hobbyist applications, however they have not been documented in load-bearing robotics parts, to my knowledge. The resulting attachments improved the walking speed of the robot in sand deeper than the dactyl depth by limiting the penetration of the dactyls into the sand. Specifically, by limiting dactyl penetration to 5.6cm, the robot's forward and sideways gaits are four to nine times faster. These results begin to show the utility of fabric basket dactyls, and future work can highlight the utility of similar passive ankles for climbing slopes.

Committee: Kathryn Daltorio (Committee Chair); Roger Quinn (Committee Member); Richard Bachmann (Committee Member) Subjects: Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Textile Research

MFA, Kent State University, 2024, College of the Arts / School of Art

As an artist and writer, I create work to explore my own complicated identification and disidentification with queer aesthetics, experiences, and environments through conceptual and physical processes. My thesis, entitled Someone's Sun, is a meditation on gay loneliness in the current age of gay-male sociality made material in a series of handwoven tapestries. I aim to embody a sense of self-inflicted ennui, a self-defeating act of seeking for connection while simultaneously hiding oneself behind banal / insipid landscapes. Through the remediation of photographs of sunrises and sunsets posted by gay men as placeholders for their own portraits on social media apps, I abstract and amplify saturation and composition in photoshop to create a digital painting of an otherworldly environment akin to those of Science Fiction films and television. I use my digital paintings as references, glancing up at them as I dye-paint warps with a variety of color using painterly brushstrokes, once again filtering each image through a further filter of abstraction. Through these digital and analog painting processes I explore color and scale, culminating in a final remediation by weaving with single toning color of wool and a metallic lurex weft yarn on traditional floor looms to create shimmering watercolor tapestries. I weave queer tapestries, that whisper seductively hushed desires while screaming “look at how I shine.”

Committee: Gianna Commito (Committee Member); Gianna Commito (Committee Member); Eli Kessler (Committee Member); John Paul Morabito (Advisor) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History; Behavioral Psychology; Communication; Developmental Psychology; Fine Arts; Gender; Gender Studies; Personal Relationships; Psychology

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2024, Studio Art

For my BFA thesis exhibition, Self-Service, I created an over-the-top “dinnerware” set that explores the imaginary and constructed image of modern-day femininity. This idea of femininity is one that is promulgated by social media and television programs. It is what I grew up with, as a child, and what I expected to become as an adult. This immersive space consists of ceramic dinnerware and tufted yarn rugs that pay homage to Judy Chicago's Dinner Party as well as lesser-known feminist art throughout US history. My installation employs over-the-top “craftiness” and “pinkness” to deconstruct the culture of white femininity.

Committee: Jennie Klein (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

MFA, Kent State University, 2023, College of the Arts / School of Art

This thesis provides context for a body of textile works. The textiles explore themes of memory and emotional landscape, connections between members of an ecosystem and the ways in which communication, and attempts to both communicate and decipher ourselves and each other is based on a lichen-like mutuality. Harnessing anthropologist Tim Ingold's concept of 'the textility of making' and philosopher and eco-feminist Donna Haraway's concept of 'making-with' or 'sympoesis', this thesis explores concepts which become tangible and embodied through the weaving process.

Committee: John Paul Morabito (Advisor) Subjects: Design; Ecology; Fine Arts; Language; Philosophy; Textile Research

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Art

When I enter the glass studio I think about my body. I think about how my body can feel itself belong and fit into a space or how it can feel isolated from it. I think about your body and how it moves in unison with the glass, my body, and the space that surrounds it. Together we must find a way to fit into the curves of the studio in that moment, we must find our place in that space. As I push forward towards the artwork, this idea of finding your body fitting or not fitting into different spaces is explorative. The installations exploit instances that grow and shrink the viewers physicality in relation to another object or space. Often playing with the moment of finding the world larger than life through the over exaggerated architecture. I have recently found myself caught in a look, one that permeates all my being. The kind of look that doesn't bounce off, and doesn't seem to disappear, though it only lasted a moment. I am questioning my gaze, my looks and the gaze and looks that come my way. Through co-opting the AWOOGA moment of a look, the look that juts out from the eyes of Tex Avery's character Wolfy. I am processing these looks within my own cartoony constructions that are comprised of paint, wood, glass, and textiles that form an installation. The AWOOGA is cringy, crinkly, playful, and funny. When I watch the two eyes jut out from Wolfy's face I sit back relax, laugh or my whole body tenses up and freezes as I remember too many unwanted looks that have shot my way.

Committee: Richard Harned (Advisor); George Rush (Advisor); Gina Osterloh (Committee Member) Subjects: Architectural; Architecture; Design; Fine Arts; Gender; Language Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Art History

In the early modern period, elite collectors began amassing magnificent collections of both locally produced and imported objects. Few were as innovative as Amalia van Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), Princess of Orange. Under Amalia and her husband, Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647), Prince of Orange, the United Provinces flourished as a cultural and global power. The strength and wealth of the country, and by association the House of Orange-Nassau, is embedded in Amalia's cabinets or closets, private spaces where she carefully curated assemblages of locally produced and imported decorative and fine artworks. Under the weight of a historiographic tradition that privileges male rulers, much of the scholarship produced on the princely couple's cultural activities marks Frederik Hendrik or Constantijn Huygens as the deciding factor without discussion or justification. While scholarly interest in Amalia's role as an independent patron and collector has grown over the last two decades, the focus to date on individual, extant objects, while informative, does not provide a comprehensive understanding of Amalia's interests and motivations as a patron and collector-- how she acquired and employed objects, both individually and in decorative ensembles, to construct her various identities. My dissertation focuses on Amalia's cabinets found in the Stadtholder's Quarters (Stadhouderlijk Kwartier) and the Oude Hof (‘Old Court') at Noordeinde, and the objects displayed within. Uniting textual and visual evidence in the form of inventories, correspondence, and objects with novel digital tools, it first applies social network analysis to visualize Amalia's social, global network that provided her with access to other impressive collections and artists, as well as assisted her with acquiring objects originating from outside of Europe. It interrogates how, once acquired, objects were employed by Amalia in ensembles within the most intimate spaces of her residences to construct her (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Catherine Scallen (Advisor); Andrea Wolk Rager (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

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

This body of work stems from my interest in drag culture, gender, and how we visually present ourselves to others. Based on vintage silk screens depicting drag queens and gay bars from the 1970's Cleveland this work is created to celebrate pioneering drag queens as well as preserve a forgotten history. To do this, the gallery space is transformed to reflect the atmosphere of one of the clubs where individuals convened to recognize beauty, glamour, and an individual's sense of femininity. Soft sculptures reminiscent of elaborate drag gowns are illuminated to emit a soft glow. These symbolic sculptures shed light on photographic images of prominent drag queens digitally printed on layers of silk organza.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Linda Ohrn-McDaniel (Committee Member); Andrew Kuebeck (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Fine Arts; Gender; Performing Arts; Textile Research

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

This series of weavings creates a sensory experience that heightens an awareness of tactility created by phenomenological movements of wave patterns. These works are influenced by my interest in swimming. Dynamic actions such as floating, diving, splashing, bending, and submerging provide inspiration for the development of the undulating structural transformation of the weave patterns. These rhythms vibrate with motion, color, and are meant to provide an immersive experience through their optical physicality. Similar to the action of swimming, directional forces and elasticity are at play, intersect and break up with moments of activity and rest.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Andrew Kuebeck (Committee Member); Peter Christian Johnson (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Textile Research

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Apparel, Textiles, and Merchandising (Education)

Textiles and apparel products create a significant amount of pollution and environmental degradation throughout their long product life cycle. In response to the increasing pressure from various stakeholders, the apparel businesses have gradually implemented environmental practices throughout the supply chain. The purpose of this study was to investigate consumers' assessment of the environmental practices in the apparel industry. Based on the schema theory and the literature in consumer environmental behaviors, the way consumers evaluate and categorize the environmental practices in their mental map, and the impacts of individual factors on their evaluations were examined. The data were collected from the general American population using an online survey. A total of 272 completed responses collected from the MTurk were analyzed. The data revealed that consumers categorize the environmental practices into three broad themes: (a) resource optimization, (b) post purchase care information, and (c) conservation. Regardless of the production stages, consumers seem to process environmental practices according to a resource usage orientation. It was also found that egoistic value and perceived consumer effectiveness were significantly influential across all three practice categories. On the other hand, altruistic value was significantly related to the resource optimization and the conservation categories. Perceived environmental risk was found influencing the respondents' evaluation of the resource optimization practice only. This study is the first study that evaluated consumers' perceived impacts of the industrial environmental practices associated with apparel production and discovered the way consumers categorize the practices. Along with the findings related to the influential individual factors, the results of this study produced implications for the marketers to formulate efficient and effective strategies to communicate their environmental practices with consumers (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Haesun Park-Poaps (Advisor); Ann Paulins (Committee Member); Geoffrey Dabelko (Committee Member) Subjects: Textile Research

MFA, Kent State University, 2020, College of the Arts / School of Art

Suffering is a universal experience which exists in varying degrees. An injured soul seeks protection from what has harmed it, and can seek safety in withdrawal, isolation, depression or mania. My thesis work is a vessel for coping and healing, and the thinking that lies behind it. I use biomorphic forms that cluster, cover and consume the wearer as the physical manifestation of emotional shelter. These adornments, referencing magic, tarot, and fantasy, are imbued with a protective and healing aura. This sense of protection, in whatever form it takes, acts as armor fortifying the wearer and allowing them to confront their trauma.

Committee: Andrew Kuebeck (Advisor); Janice Lessman-Moss (Committee Member); Shawn Powell (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Metallurgy; Metaphysics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, History of Art

Tapestry triumphed as the most prized and celebrated artistic medium in Europe during the Early Modern era (1400-1750) – an age we normally associate with great sculptures and paintings. This is evidenced by tapestry collections included in inventories that outnumber other media by a significant margin. Despite tapestry's prestige in this period, the innovative character and historical importance of this medium has gone largely unrecognized by modern scholars compared to other art forms, especially painting. My dissertation aims to redress this failure by analyzing shifts in tapestry design, initiated by Raphael's tapestry designs made for the Sistine Chapel in the sixteenth century, which ultimately transformed the way in which tapestry was designed and experienced in subsequent centuries. The woven medium's elevated status stems, in part, from the expense and material splendor of wool, silk, and gilt-metal threads, but I argue that it is also because tapestry was conceptualized as a metatextile, or a self-aware medium during this period. This means that tapestry manipulated innovations and characteristics from other media to better showcase the full range of its own artistic capacities. In other words, woven ensembles imitated other media like fresco and easel painting, sculpture, and architecture to great visual effect, but did so according to and by means of tapestry's distinctive materiality, or its characteristics of thread, scale, and mobility. I consider the unexamined role that borders, a distinctive framing feature of tapestry design, played in tapestry's articulation of other artistic media's illusionistic forms. I argue that these framing devices, combined with the medium's immense size, mobility, and material richness, are key to tapestry's self-awareness in relation to other art forms in the period. By tracing this metatextile trajectory, my dissertation brings to life for contemporary viewers (who encounter only a fraction of tapestry's original splen (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barbara Haeger (Advisor); Christian Kleinbub (Committee Member); Karl Whittington (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Art

My art and research practice encompass principles of camp, camouflage, and repetition to explore what structural queerness means and how it manifests. My work queers the material identity of its components to destabilize traditional assumptions of form and function. Through repeated motifs, gestures, and forms, I am normalizing a queer approach to process through a material-focused lens, hybridizing the structural and conceptual potential of traditional craft processes.

Committee: Steve Thurston (Advisor); Deb Scott (Committee Member); Gina Osterloh (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

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

Anthem serves to share both analytical data and emotional connections to the viewer on the subject of school shootings in the US. Black and white flag pieces made by altering US flags are flown above grave shaped mounds that take up the room. Those flags are meant to communicate the messages a black and white flag each can represent in battle, this battle being in the fight to cull the epidemic of school shootings en mass in the USA. Each flag sits in front of a chronologically ordered wall mounted book comprised of 300 toe tags, each with the date, location and number of victims of a school shooting in the US. This information is meant to show any viewer how widespread and historic these events are, whole also showing how close to home they are. Anthem seeks to disseminate information and pull emotion, but the work is not designed to fix the issue directly but create dialogue with viewers to look for solutions to the issue inside and outside the gallery. Each flag can, should and will be utilized outside white wall spaces to protest and be performative so that non-art viewers can share in the discussion and work towards new strategies in taking on gun violence in the US system of current violent behavior.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Committee Chair); Janice Garcia (Committee Member); Kuebeck Andrew (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Mass Media; Modern History; Political Science

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Arts and Sciences: Anthropology

Spindle whorls, which are used for the production of thread, are one of the only artifacts related to the textile industry which survives in the archaeological record. At the crossroads of Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, the southern Levant is at the intersection of cultural and technological change, particularly throughout the chronological scope of my study: the Pottery Neolithic (PN), Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze I (EBI) periods. This study, conducted as research for my master's thesis, is the first comprehensive diachronic study of spindle whorls on the prehistoric southern Levant. I collected data from published sources to create a database of whorls. From this compiled diachronic dataset, I noticed specific trends in the data, most notably, a shift with primarily ceramic whorls in PN assemblages to a majority of EBI whorls made of stone. Evaluating the observed trends in spindle whorls, along with identifying the materials and potential processes individuals were using to spin thread, I propose there was a shift from primarily wool spinning in the earlier periods to primarily linen spinning by the EBI.

Committee: Alan Sullivan Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Susan Allen Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Archaeology

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

In my thesis, I am investigating an understanding of self by using the unique language of textiles to translate digital photography. We construct identity via the mind-body connection, which is the mind's processing of the body's physical experience. As human experience is based on linear time, our notions of self depend on a constant cycle of perception, storage, and recollection. However, as memory is an unreliable source, our definitions of inner identity become highly variable. The disconnect between past and present is at the heart of the disconnect between mind and body. The imagery used of the body in the box references interior and exterior forces of influence that contribute to the fluctuation of memory and therefore self- understanding. The box is also symbolic of storage, of something meant be kept, as the picture is used to hold on to an experience or memory. Compartmentalization means an attempt at order. Thus, the imagery of containment connects to the binary nature of both weaving and digital information: the relationship of pixel and thread. Each exists due to their respective systems of order. The digitally designed weave structure both defines through its binary system and obscures through its visual effect. As the proximity to origin affects the clarity or accuracy of memory, so the physical proximity to the weavings determines the clarity of the image. This leads to a question of looking at the imagery and experiencing the sensation of tactility present in textile—looking and touching. Here lies a presentation of embodied cognition—the crux of the mind-body connection. The image/mind is held within the cloth/body.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss MFA (Advisor); Davin Ebanks MFA (Committee Member); Andrew Kuebeck MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Fine Arts; Language; Metaphysics; Optics; Philosophy; Systems Design; Technology; Textile Research

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

Weavings are formed through a gradual accumulation of threads inserted sequentially over time, fostering a connection between the materials and weaver. I am inspired by women of ancient Greek mythology who overcame adversity through their craft of weaving. Penelope sat at her loom weaving by day and secretly unweaving by night to stay off untimely decisions. Sisters Procne and Philomela communicated across borders through messages hidden in woven tapestry. Arachne was transformed into a spider by the goddess Athena so that she would weave for all eternity. Through the process of creating their textiles, these women exhibited considerable emotional strength and artistry, which I draw upon to bring their resiliency and feminine legacy into my own work. I use the loom as a conceptual tool, finding meaning in the metaphors associated with the process of weaving in conjunction with the physicality of the materials. My understanding of textile processes allows me to utilize the vocabulary of weaving to create textural cloth. Experimenting with compositional elements, I blur the line between foreground and background through the intersection of color and weave structures. Weaving is a form of three dimensional drawing, allowing me to delve into the pictorial and dimensional planes simultaneously. When complete and presented on the wall or suspended in space, the weavings read as eloquent objects of texture, color, and rhythm. While the ancient myths motivate my enthusiasm for the process, my use of decorative motifs was informed by my interest in the pattern and decoration movement of the 1970s. This group lead by women artists, placed value on pattern, craft, and ornament. They utilized complex pattern and shape relationships and upheld the decorative and feminine aspects of their work. Like them, these characteristics are important to me in my work. Through embracing the traditionally feminine activity of weaving and its rich history, I am connecting to the myriad gene (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Gianna Commito (Committee Member); Peter Johnson (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Folklore; Interior Design; Museums; Textile Research

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

This body of woven work results from my interest in exploring the concept of stress, a dominant aspect of living in our fast paced, technologically advanced society. It represents an attempt to focus and concentrate on meaningful content through active engagement in construction, such as hand weaving, felting and spinning; methods antithetical to the causes of contemporary stressors. I will be relying on the systematic nature of weaving as an organizational tool to express the natural urge to find balance and structure. In addition, the physical and metaphorical aspects of the textile medium will support the analogy between cloth and skin, as a form of literal and figurative protection. To acknowledge the cumulative nature of stress I will make a series of objects to reveal a sense of transformation over time. Through the use of the unique language of textiles I will be examining the effects of mental, physical and emotional stress generated by personal experience.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss (Advisor); Taryn McMahon (Committee Chair); Davin Ebanks (Committee Chair); Andrew Kuebeck (Committee Chair) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Fine Arts; Performing Arts; Sustainability; Textile Research