Breathing Life into the Reductive Format (open access)

Breathing Life into the Reductive Format

a. How does the use of different materials such as string, screen, fabric or wire personalize the work? b. How does the addition of subtly recognizable imagery change the reductive field? c. How do processes such as wrapping, printing, dripping, and other techniques infer meaning? d. How does the choice of color and scale affect the work?
Date: May 1999
Creator: Smith, Charlotte D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Constructions: An Investigation into Childhood From a Perspective of Loss (open access)

Constructions: An Investigation into Childhood From a Perspective of Loss

The interaction of the construction and the images was the focus of my proposed exploration. Previously, I viewed the images as the vehicle for content with little thought to the construction. I thought of the construction as a painter might think of his or her canvas, a place for the images to reside. The relationship between constructions as part of my content is essential. Exploration of form and image will push the limits of how the images and constructions may interact. Now that I was conscious of the construction being included in the content, I wanted to discover how the ideation process would change. I was also hoping to determine how the imagery would be affected by the redirection of my decision making process concerning the construction as part of the content.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Moss, Christopher H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Patterns and Evolution (open access)

Patterns and Evolution

My interest in the patterns of nature and culture has led me on a long journey through studies of math, sciences, and religions culminating in my current studies in art. Continuing my inquiry into processes of human perception and conception of time. My intention was to incorporate the "process" aspect of the printmaking medium into the final work by creating hybrid works that would take the "print" out of its traditional two-dimensional form. Finally, I planned to utilize the "multiple" aspect of printmaking to address ideas of patterns and evolution.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Lewis, John E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Sculptural Book: An Exploration of Form in Conjunction With the Elements of Design (open access)

The Sculptural Book: An Exploration of Form in Conjunction With the Elements of Design

My premise was the marriage of two forms, book and sculpture. My goal was to determine if these two unique types of work could be joined as one. In each oth the proposed works, I focused on an element of design as well as the challenges present when works are produced for a particular space (the Cora Stafford Gallery).
Date: May 1999
Creator: Herbst, Alicia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sources and Vestiges (open access)

Sources and Vestiges

I have suggested that the ornamental element employed in my painting functions as historical, cultural and social text, and also as a carrier of ideas and ideals about beauty and art which have been invalidated by the Modernist view. I will explore how the elements of painting: material, paint application, palette, figure/ground relationship, scale and other formal and technical factors, combine and interact to transform, contradict, subvert or negate the ornamental element in the painting; and how in turn these combinations effect the way the paintings function both formally and in terms of content.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Millar, Melanie D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Space and the Unexpected (open access)

Space and the Unexpected

I intend to explore various canvas sizes and many formal issues, focusing on space and the application of paint are paramount in my work. I used closely cropped photographs to aid in this study and my exploration addressed the following questions: 1) How does the speed of execution affect the spontaneity and authority of the piece? 2) How important is the unexpected for the success of my painting in regards to formal issues?
Date: May 1999
Creator: Fortson, Joey
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nature Constrained: A Sculptural Study in Contrasts (open access)

Nature Constrained: A Sculptural Study in Contrasts

The focus of my work was a study of contrasts which entailed taking a found natural object out of its original context and combining it with certain constructed man-made elements and allowing an interplay between the components to occur. The contrasts and interplay between these organic materials and their physical incorporation into objects of art/jewelry have been enhanced by further exploring the differing natures of the various materials used and the tension created by the placement of these materials. Through the juxtaposition of organic mateirals, refined materials, and man-made materials and by constructing them in an architecturally sensitive manner the contrasts were heightened.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Sitzes, Susan K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Barriers and Connections, A Dichotomy (open access)

Barriers and Connections, A Dichotomy

I planned to explore the concept of the dichotomy of barriers and connections further. The works I planned to produce would incorporate a variety of printing techniques, drawing, and conceptual development. Each technique and method allowed for my perception to speak in a slightly different voice. The use of these multiple techniques would allow me to explore fully the complexity of barriers and connections in a manner more comprehensive than the one technique alone.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Wilson, Nichelle L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chair-Woman (open access)

Chair-Woman

As the Chair-Woman series has progressed, I have explored the various means to enhance its interpretation. I have determined that materials such as wood and fabric result in a more intimate reading than bronze. However, I have not explored how scale and proximity to other objects will affect the reading. The questions I am seeking to resolve relate to possibilities for expanding the meaning and significance in the Chair-Woman series.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Weaver, Melanie L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Protrapment (open access)

Protrapment

It was my intention to create pieces that seem to be both entrapping and protective at the same time. I hope that, as the viewer attempts to interpret each piece, there will be a shift back and forth from one to the other until both sides are accepted and a balance is found.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Herring, Mancel K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Body Conscious: Pushing the Boundaries of Traditional Western Adornment (open access)

Body Conscious: Pushing the Boundaries of Traditional Western Adornment

The focus of the problem was to challenge the more traditional. Western approaches to jewelry as adornment in respect to areas such as placement and scale. Approaching adornment as sculptural forms interacting with the human body could possibly challenge the individual's awareness of jewelry as wearable art. This approach brought up the issue of using the human body as a pedestal for adornment.
Date: May 1998
Creator: DeRuiter, Margaret A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Female (open access)

Female

My objective was to create a body of work using various printing processes. I wanted to communicate my emotional responses to the fertility and childbearing of older women. I wanted to address the realities that become problems for women who wait to have children at an older age and related feelings. Some of these problems were infertility, early menopause, "sticky eggs," and birth defects. There are current medical practices that help these problems such as the freezing of eggs, artificial insemination, and multiple births. I wanted to incorporate ideas about the panic I began to feel about having a child at an older age and my frustration over the lack of open discussion about such feelings. I have combined the use of realism and abstraction in my work. I included dyed and torn paper to lend organic and tactile qualities to the humanistic subject matter. The end result has consisted of various forms of collage and an assembly of the dyed, torn and printed paper.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Conlon, Michaela
System: The UNT Digital Library
Presentation and Preparation: A Survey of Functional Forms (open access)

Presentation and Preparation: A Survey of Functional Forms

While I worked, I made a number of pieces that followed a common theme, each relating to the piece made before and after. This way of working revealed new possibilities for expression. During this particular body of work, I explored a specific series of forms that could be used in the preparation and presentation of food and drink.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Herbst, Frederic
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Successful Union Between Functional and Decorative Pottery (open access)

A Successful Union Between Functional and Decorative Pottery

The goal of this study was to construct a body of work encompassing a broad range of wheel thrown functional pots that are accented with hand built additions. I produced a total of forty pieces developed from four forms representing a respective increase in scale. I addressed technical and aesthetic issues during the process. These included glaze combinations, variations of established hand built additions, surface decoration, and form/shape manipulation.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Peck, Douglas E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Visions and Revisions (open access)

Visions and Revisions

My problem was to develop a personal symbolism within my paintings that expresses my identity. Who am I? Who have I been? Who will I be? Since these paintings are a way of telling my story. One aspect of the problem was communicating my ideas, making the paintings readable. Representational and recognizable images are culturally traceable symbols. The intended reading of the symbols may be generally understood; however, some degree of ambiguity was anticipated since ambiguity is an inherent aspect of symbolism. IN so much as I value symbolism and communicating ideas I believe that ambiguity is equally important. I proposed to balance readability with mystique. Things of the inner self are not immediately evident but found through contemplation. They hold mystery.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Kotzer, Ann Kringe
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Visual Perception of Body Language in Sculpture (open access)

The Visual Perception of Body Language in Sculpture

My work attempted to examine the emotional and psychological relationships between humans and the relationship of a human being with their inner self. I adopted the human figure as a potentially successful means of expressing these relationships. The language or symbolism I used in my work was derived directly from body language. This universal language is direct and immediate. Body language, posture, attitude, and tension of the figure are primary perceptions observed by the viewer. The immediacy of communication and directness of emotions through the use of body language were my main concerns. The major issue I dealt with was trying to invest those same emotions into my sculpture. My intention was to endow the sculpture, which consisted of a static unchanging pose and was created from an inert material, with a recognizable emotion and expressiveness that the human figure inherently carries.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Sayago, Maria Sara
System: The UNT Digital Library
Injuring Eternity (open access)

Injuring Eternity

I endeavored to investigate how temporal forms could be used as an avenue for addressing my sculptural concerns. These concerns included the relationship of form to material, the temporary manifestation of enduring principles, and responsibility to materials and their meanings. My pursuit of this investigation arose from both a search for alternatives in a field with a tradition of permanent object orientation and an effort to expand my own perceptions of what constitutes sculpture and the activity of sculpting.
Date: December 1997
Creator: Neumann, Cristophe
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Comic Book Style as Stylistic Meaning in Painting (open access)

The Comic Book Style as Stylistic Meaning in Painting

I Investigated the use of unpremeditated and reactionary methods of composing to arrange the landscape and figurative elements in my paintings. Though it may not necessarily be the case, these paintings may appear to have a narrative structure. The media, graphic imagery, and figure/ground relationships have given me a feedback loop, a guide by which I pictorially arranged the remainder of the developing composition. The painting revealed its identity and direction in this way to me. The application of a comic book style was the other consistent form with which I composed.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Scroger, Chris
System: The UNT Digital Library
Plast-I-Kits: Thesis Pieces (open access)

Plast-I-Kits: Thesis Pieces

I proposed to base my thesis work upon an exploration of the ideas of the strength, power, and tenuous quality of metals, using a variety of metals in combination with appropriated and deconstructed forms to create cultural narratives. In this exploration, I addressed the materials of metalsmithing and their traditional use.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Laswell, Susan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Representing the Observable Textural Patterns of Moving Water in Stone (open access)

Representing the Observable Textural Patterns of Moving Water in Stone

I plan to create a representation of the textures of four distinct states of moving water in three stone sculptures. These structured textural elements are intended to provide compelling visual stimuli that will enhance the viewers' understanding of the sculptures. The dynamic quality of rhythm inherent in the four observable patterns will be conceptually and physically captured on a stone surface.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Joplin, Jason
System: The UNT Digital Library
Messages from an Imagination (open access)

Messages from an Imagination

The large scale format allows the images I created to have a more pronounced impact on the viewer. Self-reflective subject matter exhibited within the large attention-getting style allows an audience to better connect and identify with the figures in my work. The piece is a series of large scale paintings butted together both side by side at one hundred thirty-five-degree angles that provides a vehicle to surround the viewer. The paintings, when placed together, form a continuous image and present themselves as one extensive piece.
Date: May 1997
Creator: White, Derrick R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Development of a Personal Style (open access)

Development of a Personal Style

With this project I explored pottery forms of Bernard Leach and his apprentices. By exploring this work, it was my intention to expand my forms and address the following questions: 1. What Leach pottery forms were most compatible with my work methods and decoration? 2. What significant changes could I make to these Leach forms to adapt them to my own style of working character? 3. Would producing these adapted forms in two different clay bodies and using different methods to reflect landscape imagery lead to a style that I could call my own?
Date: December 1996
Creator: McKee, Joe Frank S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Fusion of Predominantly Linear Marks and Solidly Rendered Forms as an Expressive Agent in Painting (open access)

The Fusion of Predominantly Linear Marks and Solidly Rendered Forms as an Expressive Agent in Painting

I plan to investigate the fusion of predominantly linear marks with solidly rendered forms to create a sense of space, depth, and texture within a series of paintings. The investigation will seek to answer a four part problem related to the creation of a series of paintings. The four part problem will explore whether or not the combined use of line, textural surface information, and buried images will have the potential to operate as an expressive agent in painting. This investigation will also address the series as a whole by evaluating the evolutionary process which may occur when color and solidly rendered forms are re-introduced to the canvas and combined with the primarily linear marks.
Date: December 1996
Creator: La Rosa, Angela
System: The UNT Digital Library
Manipulations in Utilitarian Ceramics (open access)

Manipulations in Utilitarian Ceramics

The objective of this study was to obtain an aesthetically pleasing surface, by altering the surface to enhance a particular form. I incorporated plant and landscape imagery from my past experiences.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Ochs, Raymond Lee
System: The UNT Digital Library