As time goes by, people are no longer limited with the basic demands of survival, which started in the primitive society, and try to search for the satisfaction of spirit and comfortable sensation. At this time, furniture becomes to be the spiritualization carrier: they could contain the history and culture; they could make people relax and bring belongingness; they could show the preference of the designers. The furniture, or all kind of design, can be more than passionless implements. That is the subject I want to explore. Because of my educational background in interior design and architecture, I usually search a way to balance between technology and people's emotions, and try to keep the function together with physical contact of design at the same time. Due to the awareness of `people-oriented' concept, I researched and designed the Cocktail furniture series. The purpose of this thesis is to analysis this furniture set, which includes a chair, a coatrack and a table. The main theme of design is to create a relaxing area with soft curved lines and round shapes, and use as few pieces as possible to reduce the weight and waste of material. I used the computer graphics, algorithms and ergonomics, Thermal Forming and Computer Numerical Control techniques together to produce the building-block combination furniture with sustainable plywood and HDPE plastic. Furthermore the use of Ergonomic, such as replaceable pieces, applies the humanistic care in the furniture. Within the consideration of function and aesthetic demands, I want to create the kind of design that can bring the joy and comfort for customers.

Fundamentally, creative endeavors are affected by the personal philosophy of artists which are greatly concerned with their perception and interpretation of life and death. These two concepts form a reality which consists of this dichotomy. As `unity' has been an underlying goal in the work of many artists, it challenges the polarity conveyed in this viewpoint causing contemplation and conversation around the framing of their own existence through their work.

This thesis will talk about how I created artwork when I started graduate school, how my artwork evolved as I explored what art making meant to me and how my thoughts about art making has developed. I will then conclude with talking about the artwork I produced for my thesis show and how that work was shaped by my previous observations and artworks.

The LapDance Scholarship was conceived in November of 2009, opened for applications in December 2010, and awarded its final scholarship in October 2012. The Scholarship has been awarded to ten recipients for the funding of their art projects. The total monies awarded totals $2,886. The Scholarship was created by Hailey Jude Minder and administered by Emily Moran Barwick. Part of its inspiration was the idea of funding something as decidedly "high brow" as fine art with something as decidedly "low brow" as lap dancing (to borrow from the chosen vernacular of the high court justices of New York in their recent ruling). The LapDance Scholarship was open to any Iowa City resident, and was awarded on a monthly basis. All applications were submitted through the blog lapdancescholarship.blogspot.com. The Scholarship is a multi-faceted project that has spanned three years, involved thousands of hours of labor, and funded ten artistic endeavors with both local and international applications. While the Scholarship itself is simple in its premise (artist applies, artist is chosen, Hailey performs lap dances, Hailey gets money, money is given to artist), the history, development, and inherent implications and issues of the Scholarship are anything but. In the following pages, I attempt to offer some of the layers of this project. I will delve into the history and development of the Scholarship as well some of the foundational thought processes underlying its conception and issues sparked by its existence. I do not claim to have produced an exhaustive analysis on all of the various elements arising from and inherent within the Scholarship, but rather an intimate view of certain aspects, moments, and thoughts. I have intentionally left out any hard and fast conclusions. I find that approach neither productive nor realistically possible. Nothing here is black and white, including my own identity and position. I am so personally entwined with this project, as it has come, literally, from my body and mind, that I cannot successfully separate myself as an objective viewer and analyst. Nor can I fully separate Emily and Hailey. So I offer you instances, layers, windows in. I offer you select parts, allow you to look, touch, consider. I offer you some of what I have to give. I offer you some, but not all.

I create my artwork using a variety of media to explore and define my concepts. My concepts involve the body and are also integrated into a larger environment to tell a story.

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Let's Rap: An Artist Statement It is not enough for me to cite music solely as a source of inspiration. Hip-Hop, R&B, and, particularly, rap music has as much to do with my upbringing as does the public school system. According to Wikipedia, the components of rap include “content”, “flow” and “delivery”, which are vaguely reminiscent of the visual art terms “concept,” “sequence” and “presentation.” Growing up, music provided a forum to explore and analyze, as award-winning journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates might put it, the necessities for surviving problems of everyday life within and outside the Black American experience. Today, my interest lies in the formality of these art forms and how best to translate them visually. An aesthetic, being ostensibly subjective, offers sight as a material to be used as one uses color, texture or form. As sight is to the visual arts, sound is to music – materials to manipulate and respond to. Furthermore, I am intrigued by the practical similarities of both music and visual art, in their ability to speak to and for their audiences. Sounds formulated into songs often become portals into yesteryear or soundscapes for an extensive but evanescent summer. What can sight formulate into? How can sight be used as a medium to spark thoughtful conversation? Can Picasso's Guernica be repeated at will, or must the visual artist wait for social uproar to amass a lasting impact? Deeply rooted in creative expression, poetry is a means to get beyond conventional reasoning just as concept provides the sublimity necessary to suspend belief. Visual artists have been doing this for years: Marcel Duchamp's urinal or Vik Muniz's depiction of (waste worker) Jardim Gramacho as radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat in Jasques-Louis David's The Death of Marat. As with David Hammons' Higher Goals my approach to object making is comparable to that of a digital recording device, perceptibly replaying discourses between Black America and its audience. Visually weaving the aura of an object with its basic function is synonymous to lyrical play and, too, possesses similar impact. Conceptual and poetic play of the two genres offers the work of the artist to transcend beyond object or record. Therefore, my efforts at object making are to reveal and discover various testimonies within and surrounding Black America.

This text looks at the political and cultural possibilities of détournement through the work of Guy Debord and my re-making of his film The Society of the Spectacle.

Imagemaking is a universal impulse experienced by all human cultures. In the continual pursuit to create compelling and engaging forms, efforts to permit images to interact in dynamic ways in extended space have been the subject of considerable exploration. The often sought-after goal is to break the surface of the paper without sacrificing the essence of the image. My current research is the investigation of Smooth-On 300 series Semi-Rigid Urethane Casting Resin and its interaction with various laser jet inks on diverse paper or paper analogous mediums. Purely on accident, it was discovered that one could easily transfer printed images onto the casting resin if it was poured directly on the print. This has allowed for a method of image manipulation in a manner that has yet to be thoroughly explored. Several experimental pours and projects have been completed to test the limits and potentiality of this new media. The results seem promising and warrant farther exploration of this exciting new development.

In today’s college culture, more universities in the United States are confronted with the escalating societal problem of alcohol abuse. Some say college-aged alcohol consumption is a rite of passage, or a way of enjoying college life. Others say such behavior is a start of a life-long tragedy of addiction and destructiveness. The photographs in Requiem for A Drink were taken at the University of Iowa which capture the excessive profanity of disoriented intoxication, inhibition, and disregard for the environment. The stark scenes of the aftermath ultimately signify the morning after, a sunrise filled with nausea, hangovers, and regret. This photographic series provides the viewer with the images to answer this question: when does alcohol consumption transition from a pleasurable party scene to one of personal destructiveness?