Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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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 Achieving spiritual synthesis(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1988) Smith, Delia MastrojanniIn Birth Series I and II I invite the viewer to participate in the contemplation of some aspects of the mystery of birth. It is important to bear in mind that the Birth Series deals with the theme of birth in universal terms. The theme of birth is developed also with experimentation in mind by integrating new shapes with traditionally symbolic ones in an arrangement which is very often highly personal, ambiguously playful, and still manipulated and orchestrated with enough interest, I feel, to allow the viewer to engage in a personal discourse with the work regardless of what my specific intentions behind each piece were at the time of conception. Some of the work, for instance, deals with my personal vision of the human figure in the landscape, and the landscape as a metaphor for the human figure, carrier of life, as in Birth Series Nos. 3, 4, 20, and 11. It deals also with, the observation of metamorphoses which occur during the life forming process in nature, and which reveal themselves in terms of changing shapes and colors. Some of the images are linked to natural things ("seed", "water") as in Birth Series Nos. 7, 11, 13, and 15 as well as to visual-linguistic forms ("lozenge", "circles"), as in Birth Series Nos. 9 and 10. My creative expression evolves with images and compositional dynamics the way blues lyrics evolve in vivid objective correlatives. As in blues and later forms of jazz, I am concerned with rendition (mimesis) and experimentation. Shapes are like musical, poetic verses to me. One form inspires a whole trend of thoughts, thoughts based on what I am, what I know, and what I believe in.Item Sculptures(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1987) Barnes, Cynthia DianneI use images which depict and demonstrate the cycles of life. There are trees which are bare, in leaf, and in fruit. The tree, whose roots are in the earth, and branches which stretch toward the sky, give protection to a myriad of animals. The snake, a creature grounded to the earth, and the bird that soars in the sky, find shelter in trees. I often observe birds in flight. With the onset of this spring, I began finding numerous dead birds. I collected them. Handling the birds, reflecting on them as symbols of freedom and flight, I thought of death as a release from this world. In making the birds exist in my art, they seem to have achieved immortality on earth, for I have perhaps interrupted the cycle, by denying them death. The myth of the Phoenix, consumed by fire and reborn has become a symbol of triumph over the mysteries of death. The birds, bugs, cats and snakes have undergone a transformation and have become for me, a way to help in my understanding of my relationship in this world, my collective past and offer a glimpse of the future.Item Life cycle(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1997) Hebb, David Allen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Harold SchlotzhauerIn my own work, I am attempting to portray a universal experience, allow for open interpretations, and yet still infuse my own personal viewpoint without basing my images on specific personal experiences. My thesis installation “Life Cycle” portrays the complex relationship between the cycles of nature and the material realities of an industrialized society. Although this is presented primarily as an antagonistic or parasitic relationship, there are also suggestions of a strange symbiosis, often explored through symbols from a variety of ancient belief systems. The sculptural installation has the structure of a natural and spiritual cycle that has a directional flow. The visual metaphors have multiple meanings and are used to refer to the three most significant stages of metaphysical being: birth, sexual union and death. The construction of the installation takes on the form of a mechanical simulacrum of the cycle between these three stages. By mechanically simulating life and its potential spiritual progress, I am questioning the validity and feasibility of spirituality by suggesting that spiritual progress may be likened to industrial progress, which is shown as a deterioration rather than a progression toward renewal and liberation. The individual forms in the installation are based on archetypal symbols, some derived from various mythological sources (lotus, serpent), and others based on direct contemporary experience (tubing, metallic surfaces, cartoon-like figures).