Date of Award

Winter 12-2022

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Degree Program

Fine Arts

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Thesis Advisor

Stephanie Sutton

Committee Member

Claudia O'Steen

Committee Member

Alice Burmeister

Keywords

Narrative, Family, Relationships, Pendulum, Dichotomy, Duality, Experience, Confrontation, Escapism, Amaranthine, Process, Systems, Interdisciplinary Art, Video, Audio, Steel, Sculpture, Fabric, Red, Rust, Sewing, Nuance, Time, Distance Introspection, Endurance, Confusion, Perspective, Reality, Journey, Psychological Landscape, Rose, Everlasting

Committee Member

Michelle Livek Garner

Abstract

Amaranthine | adjective

am·a·ran·thine | \ ˌa-mə-ˈran(t)-thən , -ˈran-ˌthīn \

1a : of or relating to an amaranth

b : Eternally beautiful and unfading; everlasting, undying

2 : of the color amaranth; a shade of reddish-rose

My work explores the narrative I have with family in relation to who I am and how I have developed as a result of both positive and negative influences. Despite the dysfunctional dynamics that I experience with my family, I choose to remain connected to them and continue to endure and persevere through the obstacles that they create. I particularly experience these moments through varying degrees of confrontation and escapism along a pendulous spectrum.

My thesis exhibition, Amaranthine, is an exploration of process, family, and self through the use of sculpture, installation, video, and audio. These elements create an experience that travels the process-oriented path of a person attempting to understand the confusion they have regarding perspective and reality as it relates to their complex familial relationships. The use of unique art-making systems to create each piece adds nuances of time, process, introspection, narrative, and endurance; abstract process-based sculptures lead to a shadowed amaranth-red cave that houses a beautifully-rusted rose garden. This psychological landscape allows for rumination, mainly for the present, but with room for the future as the pendulous-nature of this situation is acknowledged, foreseen, and accepted as being everlasting.

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