This graduate report, more than a formal description of the artistic developments I have gradually acknowledged, is a personal and perhaps arbitrary recollection of ideas that might help the reader–and me–understand the nature of the gestures that have evidently influenced the work I have produced in the past two years. These words belong to an inevitable act of introspection that seeks to validate some of the questions that have directed my artistic investigation throughout this time. I believe my work derives from two different and yet relevant positions: on one hand, the need to find meaning out of brutal events that have indisputably marked the course of history, specially in Colombia–my home country–where victims appear to loose their voices in a context ruled by indifference and apathy; and, on the other, the desire to understand what controls the reception of violent imagery as we depend on how social location, collective identification and political affiliation dictate the way we perceive the world. Each project mentioned in this report is a result of studying obsessively the political kidnappings that have been taking place in Colombia in the past twenty years, as a response to an allegedly abuse of power induced by the government against Las FARC, one of the most powerful guerrilla groups in Latin America. However each one is far from being a true document of real events and on the contrary, each one emerges as a naïve interpretation, possibly an illustration, of an ambiguous conflict that has no reasonable explanation but being a natural product of a conservative warfare–which in fact is no less than a reading made by a distant and passive witness like myself. / text

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This project examines the relationship between form and the resultant space that it encloses, through a process of assembly. The process consists of assembling materials in Phase 1, and assembling parts cut-out from a homogenous ceramic form in Phase 2. Embedded in the act of assembly is the designer's ability to construct the object in multiple formal configurations. Manipulating the form (solid) results in mutation of the space (void) held within and in-between the solid, and vice-versa. Four formal concepts guide the process of assembly in this study: interplay of solid and void, manipulation of the material skin, dynamic visual motion, and light as a building materialThe research in this paper consists of literature survey, precedent studies on two ceramic artists, and analysis of art exhibits.The significance of this project lies in its ability to blur the boundaries between academic disciplines of metalsmithing and ceramics, art and architecture. Design resulting from the overlap between disciplines has vast potential and can lead to dynamic possibilities. / Department of Art

The primary objective of this creative project was to make my artwork more appealing to a mature audience. I would use familiar imagery that I had created from characters that were initially developed for children. These characters are now not only entertaining, but also have been enhanced through the use of engaging symbolic narrative.The secondary objective was to combine my knowledge of drawing, painting and sculpture based on changes in my recent artwork. These changes were brought about through investigating contemporary artist while studying at Ball State University. The body of work includes an underlying theme: "A Journey Though life," which features Quest the foolish dog, derived from the fool card in a tarot card deck. / Department of Art

We are accustomed to meanings, signs, language, and the constraints, categories, and concepts which make-up what I acknowledge as boundaries. These are integral for interaction with people, with other forms of life, with landscapes, and with ourselves. Without boundaries there would not be progression or understanding with that which is "the other."Boundaries are categorized into four areas within these creative projects. They are environment, language, states of being, and destination. Within the categories various projects explore what create intangible separations which denote the boundary and create a visible representation of each.Within each category projects are organized by content, objective, and outcome. Some results proved to be more successful than others by effectively conveying meaning through the various imagery and objects of the installations. Often, a viewer's preference f one project over another was due to the use of a specific medium, building method, and overall design rather than the concept or idea which inspired it.The paradoxical notion of these explorations is due to the exemplification of the connections surrounding and, perhaps, instigating each boundary. Attempts to visibly explore boundaries through their connections provide glimpses of built separation markers (environment), words and phrases which may separate or connect (language), alterations of physicality (states of being), and the ambiguous quality which denotes a place (destination) such that each becomes discernable but, more importantly, that each may be surpassed. It is through the visibility of the categories and understanding of their connections in which the boundaries go beyond manifesting themselves through the viewers' collective questioning the possibilities. / Department of Art

The following project is representative of both my struggles and achievements as a student of creative writing. The poems contained within were developed through a virtual restructuring of my creative process. With the exception of one sonnet and two haiku poems, the remaining creations are free-verse experiments, heavily influenced by the works of James Wright, Robert Bly, and Robert Creeley. My goal for each poem was to connect the verse with those rare and fleeting moments in life that are often overlooked. In order to achieve this goal, I had to venture a little deeper into the realm of both imagination and possibility, without, of course, completely letting go of reality. Essentially, each poem explores two distinct worlds: that which is contained in the heart and that which the heart can never attain. / Department of English

Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / The memoir dealing with the 1st year following her daughter’s death, has developed from 5 personal essays on grief submitted for a Master of Fine Arts in Writing, University of San Francisco, 1992 and is intended to honour her daughter’s life and tell her own story. The exegesis: The ethics of life writing, grew out of the questions explored in the process of writing the memoir: What does it mean to write the ’truth’?; What must I consider when writing about others?; and, Should I reveal information that is regarded as secret or private? / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1259954 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2006

Title page and synopsis only v.2; Title page, table of contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / Abstract from Exegesis: As writers create stories within fragile and contested territories, they are often confronted by difficult ethical questions. When the lives of people from different cultures, races and genders intersect, whose story should be told? Does the person of white, European ancestry have the right to tell his/her part of that story? Does a man have the right to tell a woman's story? If so, from whose point of view? If not, should stories be peopled only with one's own race, one's own gender? Must a person of mixed identity write only about one race, one ethnicity? If so, which one? What is the responsibility of the writer to create stories of the world she/he observes and lives in rather than the ideal one in which most of us would like to live? How does the writer construct writing practices that embody theoretical and ideological values without privileging polemic over artistic integrity? These questions are not just philosophical for me as a writer. The answers determine what I will or will not permit myself to write, especially since I want to approach story-telling with a sensitive eye to the power of literature to show readers a world of diverse and intersecting experiences. This essay explores the responses to such questions by a number of highly respected international writers whose work has informed my writing. It also looks at the ethical use point of view as a strategy for entering the space of intersecting human experiences within contested geographic and political terrain. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1232065 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2006

The project undertaken was aimed at extending a current craft based jewellery practice. Related by structure and materiality, the research sought to develop exploratory shapes as low seating objects to exist within small scale living spaces and studio apartments. Signaling an increased conscious way of thinking and working, a reflective process examining each form as series, provided an incremental creative strategy. The availability of discarded materials suggested possibilities for a sustainable cost effective option as a mode of contemporary practice. This combined approach was considered impact negative, diffusing global waste, and impact positive providing valid alternatives through functional and aesthetic objects. At present waste materials exist as products are still designed and made on the basis of planned obsolescence, thus an exploitation and escalation of global resources and resultant hazardous outcomes continues. Citing selected writings by Victor Papanek, (1992), and Edwin Datschefski, (2006) provided an understanding of the misuse high impact advanced technologies imposes on the environment. These notions were discussed during the project and in relation to contemporary models of practice which currently use discarded materials to make objects for living. Based on a survey observing the local homewares and furniture industries within Sydney, Australia, and recent published material, a niche market was discovered for challenging conventions of low seating objects. Initial sketches were transformed into marquettes then developed into full size prototypes of multi functional forms. a series of forms were scaled up, made of discarded materials using simple hand crafted processes and minimal production methods. As a reference influences included architects, sculptors and craft practitioners who were examined particularly for their use of discarded materials or for their construction methods. During experimental studies visual source material drew upon an observation and analysis of architecture, skeletal structures and land formations. In an exhibition originally titled, "Be Seated", these forms made as initial prototypes were exhibited at Kudos Gallery, Sydney, Australia, during May 2007. They were later refined and renamed as "Low Life" for a group exhibition "Contained" held at Kudos Gallery during 2008.