Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Jaws: a love story(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2024) Kemp, Morgan Markley; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jim ZimpelApproximately 100 million sharks are killed per year due to finning, fishing, and beauty industries. The destruction of a critical apex predator has been overlooked due to a lack of empathy for the venerable creature. This is due to the negative impacts from the film Jaws and the subsequent rise in fear mongering media that has created a false persona that sharks are blood-thirsty man-eating monsters meant to be feared and worthy of defeat. In order to generate positive change to save sharks, the populations perception of what sharks are must be changed. By creating a body of artwork inspired by the true beauty of sharks, fearful opinions of sharks can be exchanged for respect and admiration. Subtilities of the atrocities afflicting sharks can be introduced in a palatable way resulting in empathy that can enact real change for shark conservation.Item Coda peripheral: perceptual connections between sound expression and visual art(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2023) Moralez, Melanie Dawn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sara MastCoda Peripheral explores the relationship between visual art and sound-expressions, in correlation with my graduate program artwork. It examines various approaches to differentiate perceptions of visual art from music and sound art. My aim is to reveal ways in which visual artists, including myself, have approached visual and sound art practices, while exploring the relevance of maintaining distinctions in our modern world. In this paper, I reflect upon images from artists who have engaged with sound and/or musical themes in their visual art, as well as images from my graduate art body of work that chronicle my explorations into this subject. The rare condition of chromesthesia hints at a more commonly held, perceptual experience to link concepts of visual art and music. Visual art has become such a broad and ill-defined concept that it has evolved to capture many things, including sound and music. In this thesis, I address several questions on perception and identifying meaning for ourselves: What are the attributes of music that are shared with visual art? How might we challenge perceptual values we place upon artworks? The creation and reception of art is a symbiotic cycle. Examining these concepts has led me to question how I might respond through my art.Item Inner maps(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2022) Schroeder, Heather Marie; Co-Chairs, Graduate Committee: Sara Mast and Jeremy HatchInner Maps is an examination of the impact that early childhood trauma can have on an individual's body and mind, while also exploring what role art can play in healing oneself. While much of the physical work and writing is rooted in autobiographical experiences, it is important to note that these systems, beliefs, and traumas are not an isolated experience that belong to me alone. They are universally shared and hidden. Throughout this paper I explore various traumas such as being a child of addiction, body stored trauma, generational trauma, and lastly the mother wound. Through the process of visual art, one can make the personal public by bringing awareness to their individual experiences. Various mediums can be used, as they all carry their own weight, comfort, and storytelling abilities. Clay, fibers, and illustration have been crucial for my own processing. By acknowledging past and current pain, one can create further awareness's of personal behaviors. In doing so, we can have broader conversations around healing and hope. I acknowledge that criticisms and misunderstandings of one's experiences are bound to happen and that not everyone is called to share in such a manner. However, for me, art has been an outlet and a tool to examine these topics, leading me to conclude that art can be used as a powerful tool to process and release body stored trauma.Item Ontogenesis(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2019) Sprenger, Megan Gwynn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jeremy HatchWhen one experiences place, do they comprehend what they are experiencing and think nothing of it, or do they find themselves lost in their own contemplations of place? In my research, I will discuss the importance of place and how it is a mirrored developed experience with that of the city and of self. This is done through the notions of space, place, and time. I have painstakingly constructed a body of work that relates these three important factors of humankind's growth and experience through the use of ceramics, wood, and other mixed media materials. It is my intention to bring to light the systems in which this mirrored development exists. Each section interweaves my own personal experiences. Interweaving research I have done through phenomenology, urban planning and human develop[ment].Item Manual disengagement(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2016) Fitch, Matthew Martin; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Bryan S. PetersenDysfunction is defined as abnormal or impaired function. To understand this we must first know the definition of function. To function is to work in a specified manner I order to accomplish a task. From here forward, utility will be used in place of function. With this prerequisite knowledge, dysfunction can occur, allowing an item to exist within the context of alteration and beauty prescribe for it. Tools are supremely relevant when considered with the framework characterized by use, which allows me to alter and manipulate them in ways that question the meaning of function and utility. Through the alteration of function and utility, I strive to let the viewer into my realm of modified tools that speak of work days past, labor at hand, and the value of a tool in today's society.Item Contested terrain(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2016) Rodriguez, Horacio Rafael; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Josh DeWeeseAs a product of multiple cultures and identities, my art is used as a vehicle to explore the creation of my personal narrative within the hybrid cultures of the borderlands. I am interested in generative questions such as: What role does spoken and visual language play in the transmission of culture? How did my loss of language at a young age disconnect me from my culture? What symbols, synonymous with my culture, could be transformed and infused with new meaning? How can I overcome and transform racist language and ideologies that I have confronted in my life? What do I have to say about my past and do I want to form those memories in my work? My thesis exhibition is about the many borders I have crossed in my life. I carry many of these borders with me in my memories, and produce work about these physical and psychological borders through a variety of media. Clay, photo, installation and sculpture come together to create a body of work that allows me to navigate the borderlands that I occupy. The use of personal and pop imagery allows me to construct my story, facilitate the creation of my identity and push my audience to explore their identity.Item Ways to get up & out(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1974) Frantsen, Scott SwigerMy main concern In my life Is finding the vehicle for getting way up and out Into the air. I want the vehicle (vehicle In this case meaning the means for transporting one's self) to be my vehicle - my own way, my own man-made contraption to get up and out Into the air. I have deep Interests In both static and kinetic vehicles; that Is, I am Involved In the participation of one's self whether It be the control of a kinetic vehicle or the being controlled by a static vehicle. It Is also very Important to me that the vehicle, aesthetically speaking, looks and feels right. For example, for me to get Into a Piper Cub and learn to fly that plane would be all wrong. I want to produce the vehicle and also set the guidelines for that vehicle's operation. Whether It be flying, climbing, being catapulted, etc., I want to be the control. Being In the air has always held a deep fascination for me. Climbing trees In northwest Missouri as a child was about the only way to get to that other plane of perspective; that Important plane for seeing all the things differently that grow so familiar to one who always looks with his feet on the ground.Item Doors, windows and other containers of thought(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1991) Jaeger, Timothy ScottBy taking external information, internalizing it, and re-presenting it within an art language, my work attempts to derive 'new understanding and insight regarding culture and the self. The difficulties of this life process are analogous to entering a maze whose chambers contain hidden truths. Each chamber holds multiple doors distorting and disorienting one’s choices in life. Metaphorically the maze represents culture with birth as its entrance and death as its exit. Each chamber is one’s past and each door is the present as well as passage into the future (symbolizing a transformation of consciousness). Mastery within the maze (culture) consists of questioning its parameters to establish truth from illusion.Item Personal pluralism(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1986) Berends, Andrew AlbertMy art work exploits a form of "personal pluralism" which enables me to work in a myriad of mediums as well as ideas. All the mediums and techniques surround a core of imagination which is part of a perpetual, ongoing dialogue among materials, processes and instinct. Each medium contains its own set of rules as well as parameters. I try to repeat the process to learn the physical aspect of the techniques, while at the same time letting my instincts and intuition dictate the final outcome. I am always trying to go out on a limb to challenge myself, trusting this intuition and applying a good, healthy dose of imagination. I treat art as the game that moves as I play. In other words, I never know what I'm looking for until I've found it. Each piece has a life of its own. I give it a chance to be born and then, after a passage of time, I objectively analyze and assimilate a visual feedback of information in order to understand its significance. This information becomes the catalyst for new work which will, in turn, lead to new discoveries. The pottery, for example, becomes sculpture which begins with a variation of a wheel-thrown vessel form. Like the sculptor, Peter Voulkos, I use the potter's wheel as a tool to make vessel-shapes which speak of my respect for the genesis of form through the. vessel, yet at the same time I want these pieces to stand up on their own integrity within the context of contemporary art. I am convinced that vessels can transcend the ominous barrier between art and craft if the visual dynamics of form and surface overpower the sense of utility. Ambiguous asymmetry plays a crucial role in providing impact while simultaneously raising questions that will hopefully lead to a personal investigation. I want my work to endure beyond the point of this initial impact, or beyond that point where confrontation occurs between object and viewer. I want questions to be raised about its content other than, "How is this made?" The two-dimensional work also raises questions about the very nature of rules. I purposely try to draw objects "wrong" because I was raised to believe that there was a "right" and "wrong" way of creating art. Likewise, I am beginning to realize the potential of art as a potent social weapon, not just a decorative icon. Because the world is in a state of ultra-decay, glowing more radioactive every day, and since there are more than enough people painting pretty pictures already painted, I want my art to address issues which are crucial for the survival of the planet. I am not saying I have any concrete answers or solutions, but hopefully my art makes people think about their own lives and how perhaps they, too, can start to address certain world issues instead of ignoring them through fear.Item Act of uncivil obedience: a master of fine arts thesis against mastery and fine arts -a holistic view.(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1988) Stewart, Carl ThurstonMy artistic production in graduate school is primarily temporary public art with an increasing commitment to art that presents political and social issues. Most of my artwork takes the form of large banners with images and words. My year of thesis work included writing criticism and producing video works. The thesis exhibition is a culmination and logical extension of my thinking of art as a means of communicating about issues that have vital importance to the world, integrating living with art, and stretching the limits of art. I am protesting "mastery" and "fine arts". "Mastery", furthers patriarchal values as a male term of dominance and control. It is an unsuitable term or value for these changing times. "Fine Arts", denoting a discipline separated from the other arts and disciplines, is also restrictive. I am interested in art as a form of communication. The urgent world situation prompts me to direct my powers to political and social issues. We receive most of our information about political and social issues from the major electronic and print media which address a mass audience. They are bound to the prevailing culture, its traditions, and to the constraints of commercial success. I have chosen to communicate to a smaller audience in a poetic, non-traditional manner relatively free of constraints. My thesis Exhibition included an occupation of the art gallery, a 21 day liquid fast, and various changing installations.