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Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10217/100332

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Subject "abstraction"

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    ItemOpen Access
    Abstraction, ideology and identity
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Hettinga, Maria, author; Simons, Stephen, advisor; Dormer, James, advisor; Beachy-Quick, Dan, committee member; Ryan, Ajean, committee member; Tornatzky, Cyane, committee member
    My graduate work has been in printmaking, specifically monoprints. I print a variety of materials which reference landscape as well as domestic life, including common household materials such as wax paper, plastic wrap, sewing machine-stitched swatches of textiles and paper, tulle and lingerie. My personal biography is instrumental in my work; my cultural identity has played a major role in shaping my personal identity. I was raised in a Dutch immigrant farming community on the rural perimeter of Los Angeles. Domesticity, decorative arts, fashion and femininity were intertwined to create a fixed notion of beauty and to enforce a strict definition of gender roles. My insular, conservative community contrasted with the ever-changing natural environment of Southern California in the 1970s--1990s; the landscape was altered by urban expansion as well as pollution. I make abstract visual references to fashion, femininity and landscape in effort to create imagery which evades easy definition. I employ abstraction to destabilize traditional, taken-for-granted ideological narratives. While challenging authority, I promote a mindful approach to social and environmental progress which acknowledges the complexities of the twenty-first century.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Rock collection paintings
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Cameron, Mikie, author; Sullivan, Patrice, advisor; Emami, Sanam, committee member; Flippen, Paul, committee member; McKee, Patrick, committee member; Moseman, Eleanor, committee member
    Simply observing the world around me can be fascinating. Patterns and forms I find on stones and pebbles especially provoke my imagination. In my works, I observe and render natural forms onto surfaces; I interpret rocks from my collection into multi-colored, multi-layered, quiet paintings on carefully prepared panels. By translating my experience of these objects into art I am investigating my own perception of such an other, the alien rock - what it means to enter into a dialogue with it, subsequently constituting it and reconciling myself with it. Following this activity, a painting is created; an entirely new thing is made that the viewer can then contemplate. What follows is a description of how my work relates to contemporary theoretical considerations of perception, phenomenology, and epistemology. The rock collection paintings are a visual exploration of theoretical notions including phenomenology of perception, play transformed into structure, and experience of the other. As a result of the process of experiencing and translating a rock into a quiet oil painting I produce a visual playground. What exists is not two closed off subjects: the painting and the viewer, but a playful yet serious dialogue occurring between the two entities. What emerges from the discourse between viewer and painting is a form of self-knowledge. These works of art are forms of truth that, in part, shape the viewer.