Browsing by Author "Lundberg, Thomas, advisor"

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Open Access
Acts of emergence
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) LaBarre, Sarah E., author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; Harrow, Del, committee member; Kneller, Jane, committee member; Ryan, Ajean, committee member
In my thesis installation Acts of Emergence, impressions of memory and past experiences emerge from canvas through layers of stain and stitch. Each piece suggests a fragment of memory--real and imagined. Several dozen fragmented units represent a mapping of memory through space, as if each component manifests pieces of a moment in time, flowing across the wall. The format of this piece presents a kind of disjointed timeline that contains partial records of an experience. The work as a whole is scattered across and floating away from the wall, creating a fragmented composition made up of bits of densely stitched canvas. Viewed more closely, each fragment itself becomes a composition. Stains suggest the presence of memories left behind. Each piece in this panorama holds a moment; together the units present a kind of suspended place or moment in time. These fragments appear to travel across the wall, emerging from my memory and stained with references to a history, not unlike paintings made by the Mexica people of Pre-Hispanic Mexico, who conceived time and space as intrinsically linked. I draw much inspiration from the human body's capacity to convey many emotions. The dancing figures in my work are anonymous: each with their own identity, yet not seen as anyone in particular. They are frozen in specific moments, offering a view of that moment as well. Together, suspended figures plot multiple moments within this spreading map of memory.
Open Access
From Sacrificial Lands to reciprocity: art and social engagement
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Thornton, Janine, author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; Kissell, Kevin, committee member; Moore, Emily, committee member; Plastini, Johnny, committee member
Oh I would touch with this love each wounded place - Anita Barrows, "Psalm" My thesis artworks focus on interconnection and on the Western cultural perception of a separation between humans and nature. This perception developed during the nineteenth-century Westward Expansion, which viewed nature as a source of resources to be utilized and tamed. Within this separation is an assumed hierarchy in which nature is viewed as lesser or expendable when compared to humans. Land continues to be sacrificed for human wants with no regard for the impacts that this land use has on nature and humans, or on our delicate ties of interconnection. The word interconnection is very broad with many meanings and interpretations. In this work, interconnection refers to relationships, especially from an environmental perspective, in which individual behaviors affect other life forms and natural systems. This interconnection is a web of cause and effect, in which actions of individuals have impacts that ripple out into the world. It is often difficult to understand the effects that individual actions have on others, as it requires a heightened awareness of our world and its issues – awareness that can be challenging to achieve. I believe more discussion and action are needed to help expand awareness and sensitivity towards environmental threats. The questions guiding my research ask, a) how I visually represent the concept of human/nature interconnection, b) how I express the environmental necessity of relationship and reciprocity in our actions, and c) how social engagement can help to expand awareness and discussion. I included social engagement in my thesis because I believe a greater depth of understanding can be encouraged through collaborative works with artists and other disciplines. I explored ideas of human/nature interconnection and relationship through studies of materials, place and the environment. Materials such as fibers, cement and plastic connote relationship, culture, consumption and waste. Fibers are reminders of everyday consumer items such as clothing and housewares, which also can provide a sense of status through the brands selected. Plastics link to consumer product consumption, and to trends, which lead to waste when the item is no longer of value. Plastic is another manufactured material used for packaging and consumer product integrity. My use of plastic ties back to product consumption and waste, as most plastics become landfill. Cement is a manufactured material most frequently seen in construction projects, which aligns with urban development and shifting relationships with nature. Following my work with materials, I looked to my relationship with place, focusing on where I live. This included developing a better understanding of how I relate to the land and wildlife around me, and impacts I make by living there. By making the subject matter of my work more personal, I am better able to see my particular relationship with nature and the impacts of decisions I make. Next, I expanded my personal perspective from my locale to a larger view of the rural environment through the collaborative development of the Sacrificial Lands exhibit, which includes my artwork along with work of other artists, poets, and scientists. The Sacrificial Lands project showcases individual perspectives, creativity, and research from a variety of fields. The objectives are to encourage expanded discussion of environmental topics and to promote collaborative endeavors that seek greater environmental awareness and restoration.
Open Access
In repeat: scars, structures and surfaces
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Miller, Carrie, author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; Bates, Haley, committee member; Fahey, Patrick, committee member; Kissell, Kevin, committee member
This body of work investigates the veiling and revealing of physical and emotional scars. A link is made between these kinds of scarring by observing the structured space that the body provides for the psyche. While equating the body with a container, these artworks animate the cyclical nature of re-growth and regression through a breadth of forms. In my studio practice, I explore cloth as a gendered, sexually charged space. Through their relationships to the body and their cultural associations, the textile materials in my work probe the boundaries of body and psyche, public and private, and decorative and abject. How can cloth capture subtle and metaphorical relationships in the healing and scarring process of the body and the psyche? Cloth, as the ubiquitous second skin, provides access points for the viewer. In a global society, the symbolism of cloth can often be contradictory. Throughout history, women's dress has included garments that act as veils. Simultaneously, veils embody protection, modesty, seduction and subtle combinations of all three. In many of these works, qualities of transparency are emphasized to explore what is exposed and what is hidden in the body and the psyche. This body of work is comprised of four handwoven pieces and two painted textile pieces. Omissions (Fig. 1), Old Growths (Fig. 2) Bandage (Fig. 3) and Optional Endings 1-5 (Fig. 4) are handwoven while My Body at Home (Fig. 5) and My Body at Home II (Fig. 6) are soft wall sculptures.
Open Access
Lake Street weavings
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Bukowski, Kristen, author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; Kissell, Kevin, committee member; Moore, Emily, committee member; Osborne, Erika, committee member
Lake Street Weavings is a series of five small woven textiles. Their colorful compositions are inspired by my surroundings and reflect the gridded American landscape. I am enamored by the relationship of these grids to woven structure. In this series, I transform colossal grids from our landscape into small woven textiles. I attempt to capture the character of my environment and translate these qualities into weavings. Through Lake Street Weavings, I hope to express my movement through the world as a complex matrix of place and time. The series is also exhibited with a large scale wall hanging, Suspended Function, and a woven accordion book, Night and Day. These additional works explore the same themes as Lake Street Weavings, while emphasizing scale in different ways.
Open Access
Legacy: untangling the lines of inheritance
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Gunderson, Kirsten Rana, author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; Bates, Haley, committee member; Fahey, Patrick, committee member; Marvin, William, committee member
My artwork aims to understand the nature of a legacy. From family history to material objects, to shared genes and shared obligations, I examine the intertwined threads linking people, events, and objects within my family. I seek answers to questions I have about myself and about those who have shaped me. I weave together the individual elements of my inquiry, assigning color and pattern to people, feelings, and memories. Imbued with qualities of family character and suffused with emotion, the robes are the final assembly of these components. These robes are an incarnation of my grandfather and of his complicated interactions with his family. He was a man who struggled with his own sense of identity. He had great hopes and aspirations, but anger, desire, and self-doubt often undermined his plans and relationships. By interpreting my grandfather's personal narrative into cloth, I hope to resolve his fractured legacy. These robes are not simply a tribute to my grandfather; they are my study of who he was and of what he has passed on to me. I, too, have the desire to live an extraordinary life, but there are restraints, and responsibilities to be met. The fibers and patterns in my weavings draw upon Viking textiles and the functional and spiritual needs they fulfilled. I seek to incorporate natural rhythms and forms, managing elements of chance as colors shift and watery patterns form. The robes are created to blend a sense of elements and the natural world, while creating parallels with human nature. I find inspiration in Norse cosmology and in the way humans try to answer questions about their lives, the world, and the universe. Like a weaving made of hundreds of fine yarns, a person is formed by what they inherit and learn from hundreds of people.
Open Access
Managing and manifesting memory
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Jaso, Jacob Stuart, author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; Lehene, Marius, committee member; Kissell, Kevin, committee member; Ryan, Ajean, committee member
To understand my relationship with my past, I make objects with a sense of urgency to harvest sensations and reveal truths hidden in memory. When I left New Brunswick to emigrate back to the United States, I began to feel a longing to return to Canada. I had found a real sense of home, with deeply personal and profound connections to people and places. I would not truly understand the depth of those connections until I left. As I work to gain perspective on my longing to return to the past, I draw upon Suprematist concepts of creating irrational spaces and giving primacy to feelings over objective visual representation. Both concepts use color and shape to create these irrational spaces and to capture raw emotion. Far from New Brunswick and the people that made me feel welcome, everything I began to make echoed their faces and the landmarks that ground my remembered experiences. To understand the extent and power of memories in my creative process, I considered how to diminish their ability to influence my practice, since everything I made was centered on the past. Could Suprematist strategies offer real ways to distill a memory without diluting the remembered experience, breaking down memory, and discovering truth within the process of longing? If I could not return to living in a comforting past, I would create a window, a portal, a way to dwell in the contentment of that chapter of my life.
Open Access
Refractions
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) White, Sara Goldenberg, author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; Faris, Suzanne, committee member; Sanders, Eulanda A., committee member; Coronel, Pat, committee member
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.
Open Access
Transfigurement; Animophilia
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Lambert, Cei A., author; Lundberg, Thomas, advisor; DiCesare, Catherine, committee member; Ryan, Ajean, committee member; Sparks, Diane, committee member
The illustration-based installation Transfigurement; Animophilia contends with the integration of my subconscious and conscious mind by suspending disintegrated parts that describe a process of transformation. The work is not intended to portray an integrated, resolved person. Using transparent materials that include viewers as they explore illustrations of my body in metamorphosis, I expose the membrane of my subconscious to scrutiny. The metamorphosing chimeras present in this work are distortions of the form I inhabit, yet detailed illustrations coax viewers to suspend their disbelief in these neo-beings. The moments when these creatures merge reflect my drive for individuation and the investigation of my personal metamorphosis. To shift back and forth between visible illustrations and the translucent spaces between images is to invite viewers into my chaotic inner dialogue, where reason argues against feeling, integration alternates with disintegration, and the real parallels the fantastic.