This thesis investigates how the interior of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center of Dallas accommodates the three groups which use the space: the patron, the musicians, and the administration. Following the Draft Brief of 1981 prepared by the Dallas Symphony Association's Concert Hall Building Committee, each area is discussed as to what was actually built and what concerns were met. The primary data were the symphony center and interviews with I.M. Pei, architect; Russell Johnson, acoustician of the concert hall; Charles Young, associate of Pei, Cobb, Freed & Associates, interior architect of the concert hall; Carolyn Miller, Trisha Wilson & Associates, designer of the Green Room, Richard Trimble, designer of the musicians' areas, and Joe Pereira, designer of the Administrative area.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the depiction of rainbows in the art of Frederic Church in relation to mid-nineteenth century scientific developments in order to determine Church's reliance on contemporary concerns with light and color. An examination of four Church paintings with rainbows, three oil sketches, and nearly a dozen pencil drawings shows that Church's rainbow art represents a response to mid-century cultural values connecting science and art. Changes within Church's rainbow depictions occurred as the artist explored the visual representations of light, synthesizing the scientific knowledge of light and color available to him, and reconciling that information with the requirements of art.

Art educators and classroom teachers in the elementary schools are confronted with the challenge of helping children look critically at works of art and develop written and/or verbal skills to communicate their findings. It was the purpose of this study to determine the effectiveness of the conceptual learning technique of semantic webbing in teaching art criticism in the elementary classroom. The author revealed a significant difference of opinions between two sample groups and similarities between the variables of frequency of use, and familiarity of the webbing technique and its effectiveness in the classroom. The sample groups consist of elementary classroom teachers and art specialists who work with kindergarten and first grade children.

A major figure to emerge in the history of American photography is Carlotta Corpron (1901-1987), who taught art at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas from 1935-1968. The rediscovery of her abstract images created during the 1940s reflects the growing recognition of the experimental photography at the New Bauhaus in Chicago from 1937-1946. Corpron's abstract photographs were stimulated by her interaction with Lazlo Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes. Corpron was an innovator in the development of abstract photography in the United States. This thesis connects her work to that of Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes as well as other major figures in American photography of the twentieth century.

Over a period of two decades, Raymond D. Nasher, a Dallas-based real estate developer, and his late wife Patsy amassed a collection of significant modern sculptures. For years, pieces from the private collection--numbering over 300 as of 1990--were on display in various museums and civic institutions, and they were installed on a rotating basis at Northpark Center, a Dallas shopping mall developed by Nasher. Since the 1987 Dallas Museum of Art exhibition, the collection has been shown in several major international museums. This study documents the formative period of the collection, the Nashers' collecting and exhibiting philosophies, and four early exhibitions of the sculptures. It includes a chronology of the Nashers and major acquisitions of sculpture.

This study examines the effects that discipline-based art education has upon reading test scores of public school second grade children. The progress in language arts of an experimental group and a control group were followed for two six week grading cycles. The experimental group was treated with DBAE instruction for one six weeks, while the control group received only studio production exercises. Both groups received no art instruction for another six weeks. Gains between mean pre-test and post-test scores indicated a significant difference for the experimental group but not the control group.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the stylistic development of the Italian architect Aldo Rossi from Modern to Post-Modern design. A summary of the Modern architectural movement is presented along with an analysis of the developments in Post-Modern architecture since 1960. The influence of Italian culture on Rossi's career is discussed through a brief survey of Ancient Roman archetypal motifs and Italian architecture of the early 20th century. Several key buildings proposed or constructed by Rossi from 1960-1990 are discussed based on his concepts of analogy, typology, morphology and rationalism.

Two curricular needs exist for the elementary art classroom: multi-cultural lessons which are customized to address North Texas ethnicities, and art history materials for early grades, whether taught by art teachers or regular classroom teachers. This thesis addresses both of these concerns by developing lesson plans to meet the needs, and executing an evaluative study with North Texas art and regular classroom teachers of kindergarten and first grade. The teachers represent four districts, including rural, suburban, and urban demographic populations. Findings address time limitations for public school teachers, cultural exchange differences between demographic groups, and differences between presentation of the units by regular classroom teachers versus art teachers.

The object of this problem in lieu of thesis has been the exploration and identification of the retained two dimensional design idiom in the sculptural format of my work. (By this, I am referring to the lateral, planar quality which often continues as part of my designs.)

For the purpose of this study I intended to use Majolica to allow me both more flexibility in the physical act of decorating my ceramic work, as well as the opportunity for the expansion of my selection of symbols. During this investigation the following questions were addressed: 1. Was the color range attainable with Majolica relevant to my work? 2. Was my chosen imagery complemented by the special properties of Majolica. 3. Did the textural possibilities of Majolica benefit my work?

I am interested, both from a personal standpoint and from a cultural perspective, in pursuing the meaning of thes eimages singly and as they combine with others. In turn, the results, I hope, will lead to the discovery of more images for my image encyclopedia. After this introduction subsequent chapters will explore my reasons for the combinations of images I choose and will place the finished drawings in their contemporary art context. My goal will be to note the changing meanings of the objects as they interact serially.

I was curious as to what my work was about and what images were important to me. There had to be a reason why I was driven to do what I did, whether it was a conscious, conceptual purpose or a subconscious, intuitive reason. The problem of this investigation was to discover which of these I used in the creation of my images or whether I used both.

For the problem in lieu of thesis, a series of ten works were created in which a male image replaced the female image; I continued to utilize the same materials, format, and centralized frontal figure. A record of the work was accomplished by maintaining a written and visual journal on progress and outcome. Some research was made into topics related to the work, and the findings from the literature comprise chapter two of the paper. In executing this body of work and researching related topics, I hoped to better understand my conscious and unconscious processes and motivations in creating both the self-portrait series and the new series.

The act of putting anything on a base isolates it and makes it seem more precious. The base separates the viewer from the sculpture and affects the relationship between the sculpture and viewer. The problem for me was to remove the base and experiment with the possibilities now opened to my work. The purpose of this study was to explore the presentation potentials of sculpture freed from the constraints of the plinth.

The objective of my problem in lieu of thesis was to produce twenty hand-built porcelain objects which reflected this conception of beauty. To review the success of my project, I asked three questions to evaluate my work. 1. Was there significant structure to my works? 2. Was there significant discord within these structures? 3. Did the tension created through the interaction of these two elements of my work create beauty?

The goal of this problem was to incorporate clear nylon monofilamnet in a series of weaves traditionally chosen for their absorbent virtues that in these cases would achieve interesting textural effects and light-reflective qualities in addition to varying degrees of transparency.

I believe that an artist needs a mechanism(s) built into his or her working method out of which the greatest number of options may arise. I suggested that, for me, painting on paper could be one such mechanism. I wanted to pursue paper as a viable surface on which to paint and discover to what extent it would influence my choices in the working process.

The purpose of this problem-in-lieu of thesis is to explore the effect of scale in my sculpture, on me as an artist as well as the viewer. My work addressed the following questions: 1. Can smaller-than-life-size sculpture communicate with the same intensity as my previous life-size work? 2. How does scale affect the ability of the work to communicate ideas and feelings? 3. Can the sculpture be as confrontational without occupying space as we do? 4. Does a larger-than-life-size piece gain intensity in any of these questions due to its scale? 5. How does scale affect my feelings toward the work and my method of working?

My proposed objective was to create eight illustrations using Fusion as a tool to communicate concepts. I posed the following questions for evaluation. 1. Can I create two-dimensional illustrations effectively when applying the knowledge and techniques I have studied? 2. In what way will the use of multiple techniques affect the concept?

Just as packaging in its most mundane, pragmatic sense refers to the commercial and traditional aspects of jewelry, so also does display. In addition to being a mere vehicle for presentation, the idea of display creates an intriguing set of design and conceptual problems which seem to be a natural extension of my current and ongoing concerns.

Each of the pieces in this study was a single room structure which incorporated a window. The scale varied depending on whether the piece as a whole or in part was to be worn.

The Isle of Man and Southeast Texas both display unique aspects of their geographical localities. In many ways they share similar attributes. I feel strongly that we are a product of our past and of our surroundings. So what type of imagery can be dealt with as a personal icon to link the two diverse places of my past and present?

Even Though I already did paint fairly rapidly, I felt I had a tendency to let the painting in progress sit too long in between times spent working on it. I also felt that I was spending too much time stepping back away from the work to look at it and was milling around the studio sometimes needlessly. Thus I became intrigued with the idea of doing a painting in one block of time. The purpose of this investigation was to explore and study the possibilities generated by a series of "one-sitting" paintings. I defined one-sitting painting as a painting which proceeded from beginning to end without a significant break, meaning that it could take anywhere from four to sixteen hours to complete.

The intention of my mask-making was to present a body of work that visually captured my many encounters with spiritual presences in nature. From my perspective, these spiritual presences can be described most effectively as Platonic ideals, or the blueprints from which all physical forms are derived. These spirits are, therefore, the life breath and animating force behind the material world. I wanted to transcend the mere physical manifestations of nature and create in the masks a primary vehicle or conduit for the spiritual presences that I sensed in nature.