An analysis of the surface of my paintings through Jean Baudrillard’s notion of seduction and the cool mechanism of the airbrush. I further investigate my work through the metaphor of the black mirror also known as a Claude Mirror and the connections between my work, Claude Lorrain’s landscape painting and divination through the use of reflective surfaces known as catopotromancy. Considering the notion of assemblage as outlined by Gilles Deleuze and Bruno Latour’s Action Network Theory I attempt to navigate the part/whole relationships found in painting, and in society.

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) created a series of prints entitled The Disasters of War (1810-1820) (Los Desastres de la Guerra) depicting the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, the famine that subsequently occurred in Madrid, and symbolic representations similar to his print series Los Caprichos (1797-1799). This thesis will consider Goya’s use of the unclothed human body in his series of prints The Disasters of War. This thesis will place these representations within the contexts of other works produced by Goya that portray the unclothed figures, as well as within the Spanish artistic tradition of Goya’s time. Through this investigation, I will situate the role representation of the unclothed body serves throughout the series.

How can we know something through how it is sensed? Making anthropomorphic, three-dimensional paintings through a set of basic, at-hand materials, I’m interested in how empathy, modesty, and doubt can mediate a tangible experience of an object. Challenging notions of perception, I want to create a heightened sense of awareness in which the intangible can be seen or felt.

Several years ago, a professor suggested to me that my work was like a series of conversations. At the time, I was reading everything I could find about spirituality in art including the writings of Wassily Kandinsky. He asserted that the vital element in a work of art is the emotion in the soul of the artist, which has the capacity to evoke a similar emotional response in the observer. He believed that painting is in no way different from a song; each is communication. As I reflected on everything I had read and on my instructor's comment, I began to think of my work as a quiet soulful conversation with myself, with other artists, and with my surroundings. In a conversation, as in an artwork, it is important not to say too much or monopolize the conversation.

This thesis and accompanying exhibit, Untitled [Distance Moving Through Me: Giselle and Marco] explores contemporary issues of displacement and our relationship to the site of home. Through the trope of a pilgrimage in the desert, both virtual and in person, inspired by the eviction and imprisonment of my paternal family from Egypt in 1956, Distance Moving Through Me: Working in Exile asks how we can use our virtual experience and changing perspectives of the landscape to our advantage for a more empathic world.

My work deals with the connection between the act of representation and conceptions of truth in the contemporary image-mediated social environment. This thesis details elements of my paintings in exchange with methods and ideas from artists and writers in order to position my aesthetic and conceptual sensibilities within a historical and contemporary framework.

We are hosts, we are hosts and we’re deeply aware of it. We are aware of the pollutants and particulates that exist in our air, aware of the growing presence of UVB radiation that touches our skin, aware of the microbes, bacteria and viruses that call our interiors home, more completely aware than we’ve ever been that to have a body contemporarily is to acknowledge a multiplicity that can be wholly uncomfortable and even alien: that we are hosts to so much seemingly unwanted material, sensation and life.

My work focuses on the reality and life of mental objects. The unseen masquerade as the seen, not only in our mind's eye but as an immediate visual experience. To realize this I apply volumetric form to models of thought and present them in a variety of environments. The forms are derived from the fields of science and mathematics, specifically geometry and topology. Topology or "rubber-sheet geometry," is the study of shapes whose essential attributes are unchanged by continuous deformation. The shapes are not defined by measurements of distance and angle, but by whether they can be transformed when bent, stretched, or shrunk. For these shapes I assemble environments which include architecture and devices from Italian Renaissance painting. In constructing the compositions I use an underlying geometric framework. The impetus for this device is that all things are hung on a structure of some sort, whether it be paint or metaphor. This device is also connected to Renaissance ideas of proving the divine through the employment of mathematics, or rather, using the tools of the exact sciences as a way of proving the unprovable. I see these arrangements as exemplifying a Metaphysics of Beauty in which the Platonic world of scientific and mathematical objects is filtered through aesthetics in what I have termed Calliphysics. Kale, from the Greek, meaning beautiful.

The study focuses on how American and Thai shopping centers have evolved and concludes with an example for future Thai retailing: the one-stop shopping center, which is currently enjoying much success in the United States, but which has not yet been introduced to Thailand. The information about the history and development of American and Thai shopping centers, including types and trends, provides directions for a new Thai shopping center development. In addition to the history, Thai and American cultural and social issues must be considered as well. The study looks at American consumers and their behavior reflected in the space and organization of the American mall as a model for designing Thai shopping centers with respect for Thai culture. In addition, this study reviews the major features of American retail design and their interpretation for Thailand. American contributions (such as one-stop shopping concept, code applications, and technology) and Thai conditions (location, trends, Thai cultural and social issues) are incorporated into the final design of the one-stop home furnishings shopping center, located in Bangkok, Thailand.

My thesis describes the technical processes involved in producing my work. Illustrations and diagrams complement the manuscript. The sculpture is represented by photographs. I do not intend to verbally describe what each sculpture attempts to project for itself. I have done and will continue to do sculpture because it makes more sense to me than anything else, including writing about what I have made. The investigation, planning, creating, and presentation of my work manifests itself in the object. I would, therefore, undercut this intent if I attempted to duplicate my sculpture rhetorically. The works discussed were shown at three locations: Fayerweather Gallery, November 7 to November 23 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; Healy Gallery, January 29 to February 11 at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; Salve-Regina Building, February 14 to March 3 at Catholic University in Washington D.C. All concerned faculty, friends, and benefactors were mailed reception invitations. The description of each piece follows in the order each was completed.