The Living Chain is a body of work built to apply and analyze mythological narrative and traditional printmaking techniques. The work is a collection of prints telling an original narrative that derives much of its visual and thematic style from the works of the Baroque and Medieval periods, as well as significant influence from the prints of Gustave Doré. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ideas, mythologies, histories, and symbols found in and inspiring the work, in order to better understand the work’s purpose and its technical challenges. Additional focus is given to the historical significance and cultural impact of meaningful, mythological narratives and the differences between modern and historic narratives told through sequential works of art.

Sight is the most important of our five senses. It allows us to navigate our environment, find food and avoid danger. Sight can be used to accurately render a drawing or to recognize nuance in a form. It can also be used in more dynamic ways to parse the complicated social systems and customs that build our societies. Despite all that we can see, we are inundated with what we cannot. This inability to see can be categorized into two subdivisions: items that possess characteristics that are beyond our eye's physical capacity of perception (e.g. microscopic objects or electromagnetic radiation) and items and situations whose exact presence goes unnoticed due to our mind's conditioning from repeated exposure (e.g. glass in a window frame or halftone dots that form a printed picture). Through the use of special instruments or awareness raising techniques these invisible objects can be brought to light. Artists and their art have often played important roles in society by revealing things that go unnoticed and making them plain to see for all. These revelations can be as simple as capturing the beauty of a natural landscape or as controversial as portraying the impact of religion, gender or oppression in our communities. My most recent set of prints investigate "seeing the unseen" by meditating on the minutiae and microscopic organisms that permeate our surroundings yet escape our attention. By utilizing handmade paper's tactile qualities, juxtaposing seemingly dissimilar objects and the use of bold and often times unnatural color, I have attempted to create a space where items of different scales can exist side by side so we can revel in their wonder, discover visual similarities between objects and plainly see them with our own eyes.

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I make installations, objects, paintings, drawings, prints, and arrangements of found words (which some have classified as poetry). I take note of ideas, imagery, and phrases from places that are commonly seen and heard but often go unnoticed. The work combines humor and innocence with an awareness of our culture of mass-production and consumption, resulting in an approachable, whimsical criticism.

The landscape has long been the focus of my artistic research. Yet no matter how often I return to it, I continue to wrestle with how to engage, respond to, and conceptualize landscape and my place in it. I recognize "that which is real (the actuality of one's experience) butting up against the forms of cultural representation that encode it." There are two primary ways that I encounter landscape: 1) through my body and a phenomenological orientation; 2) through layers of discourse, stories, and representations. While the landscape and its features may be neutral space and objects, it is a site fraught with highly charged stories and competing systems of representation, narration, and perception surrounding the same events, time, and place. To this end, my thesis is guided by the following questions: what stories shape my interaction with and understanding of landscape and nature? How have I been disciplined by cultural and historical scripts, media, and technology? How does a lineage of art history influence a particular way of picturing and framing the natural world? And finally, what stories do I perpetuate or contribute in my work as an artist to this discourse about landscape?

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Crowing Hens Bindery is an independent business that I have founded to combine my passion for bookbinding, printmaking, and production. The purpose of this study is to provide an opportunity for me begin to make the transition from being a student in a graduate level book arts program to a self-employed bookbinder in a production and market driven environment. To gain a better understanding of production binding techniques I implemented a small production run. I designed three blank book prototypes that focus on the needs of the user, and I developed marketing descriptions to help put these products within a market context. To diversify my product line, I have created a variety of decorative papers including paste papers and linocut letterpress printed papers. These will serve as my proprietary covering material and offer alternative avenues to supplement my income. I have photographed the various stages of bookbinding and printing to illustrate the process of product development. This study has allowed me to begin to assume the various roles and responsibilities that a self-employed bookbinder must assume in order to cultivate a successful business.

This is a thesis that represents an art show that was made on an iPhone and features images appropriated from Yahoo!, Facebook and Instagram. It is not profound. Follow me on Instagram @printmacker.

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