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Department of Art and Art History

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/100328
These digital collections include theses, dissertations, capstones, and student publications from the Department of Art and Art History. Also included is a collection of paintings and drawings by Professor Emeritus John F. Kutzik. Due to departmental name changes, materials from the following historical department are also included here: Art.

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Browsing Department of Art and Art History by Subject "abject"

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    A disobedient mediation
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Bagdon, Andrea, author; Osborne, Erika, advisor; Bernagozzi, Jason, committee member; Ryan, Ajean, committee member; Little, Ann, committee member
    Historically within the canon of art, specifically painting, the female form and ultimately female identity was understood in binary terms as being an opposite of the heroic male, conveyed as a commoditized trope of the feminine. There was a disruption to the canon of art in 1968 with the invention of the handheld Sony Portapak camcorder. Many female artists adapted video into their artmaking practice for its ability to become an effective communication medium. In its infancy, the medium of video was not yet dominated by male artists and was not taught in most art institutions. Thus, it represented a medium untainted by the baggage of art history. As a result, experimental video became a feminist medium which offered an alternative form of mediation to subvert the patriarchal artistic canon. Artists have the potential to be researchers of perception and Art can become an agent of mediation to breakdown subjective social orders that cloud our consciousness. My work aims to decode and expose the abstracted systems of femininity and the domestic by using the image processing mediums of video and paint. My paintings and videos unveil multiple emotional states from the same female-identifying psyche in order to examine intimate scenes of self-conflict which have been brought on by obsessive cultural programming. By using uncomfortable representations of the domestic and the figure I also intend to highlight the psychological trauma and disrupt the patriarchal lens that is inherent within the canon of art.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Rope language
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Guilfoyle, Johanna, author; Plastini, Johnny, advisor; Lajarin-Encina, Aitor, committee member; Romagni, Domenica, committee member; Moseman, Eleanor, committee member
    With blistered hands and rope-burned ankles gripping the rope, I look up towards the peeling tape marking the daunting height of 15 feet. I loop the rough fibers over my right foot before clamping it in place with my left. My feet hold steady and I stand up to reach my arms further upwards. I unwrap the rope from my feet and lift them higher before re-looping the rope over my right shoe, again and again, literally sculpting my body, my muscle, my flesh. Through the rope and this repetitive task, I build my flesh. The rope and other symbols of my past are imprinted over and over again. Similarly, the layering and fusing of prints transform inanimate material into bodily experience--I create flesh from repetition, and through this flesh convey the physical narratives contained within. The color and texture of each print builds to create the final collective mass. If any one of the prints were missing, any piece of the narrative, the final piece would exist as a different form. The layered narrative of my work is embedded in encaustic mortality. The amalgam of my life is embedded into flesh. The corporeal experience of my work entices the viewer to become increasingly aware of their own flesh and the narratives contained within.
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    Surfaces of growth and decay, beauty and repulsion: addressing the abject and the sublime through drawings of the natural world
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Scheck, Naomi, author; Kokoska, Mary-Ann, advisor; Lehene, Marius, committee member; Ryan, Ajean, committee member; Moseman, Eleanor, committee member; Harrow, Del, committee member; Rickard, Kathryn, committee member
    My artwork has largely been influenced by my understanding of the natural world as being in constant flux. Through my drawings I explore natural life processes that are both beautiful and destructive, addressing growth and decay. I seek to present a visual and sensory experience that generates emotions of awe and imagination, but also challenges and confronts idealized views about life and natural processes. My intentions are similar with those of abjection, which occurs when that which is normally ignored, unacknowledged, or uncomfortable is exposed. I work with tensions between beauty and ugliness in my artworks in order to address these ideas. My drawings work on a microscopic and macroscopic scale, which addresses relationships between intimacy and distance. I work with fine detail on large pieces of paper, so the drawings are viewed both from up close and from afar. At a distance the drawings look like organic formations or topographies, but up close, the detail and volume of marks become prominent. Obsessive accumulation is also important; the multitude of various marks cannot be counted or comprehended, which references the notion of the sublime. The various elements of the drawings work together to create the feeling of an amorphous entity in the midst of uncertainty and change.