In my mixed media pieces and sculptural books, I explore the significance of place. Place is not just a geographical location; it is a layered history that tells a story. My experiences in a specific environment and how I relate to it, study it, remember it, or imagine it drive me to create pieces. While the choices I make are influenced by my own experiences, I want to evoke feelings of familiarity, intrigue, and a sense of nostalgia. In my process, I intuitively layer paint, printed materials, and mixed media to make a foundation for exploration. I continue to experiment by applying more paint and developing layers of media and marks. I cut away, add to, and rework areas in an effort to build a reflection and sense of place. The process itself is as important as the outcome. The stratum of layers reveals the growth and evolution of a work and in turn discloses its own history.

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This paper is a broad examination of the ship as portrayed in Scottish art from AD700 to AD1914. It examines the activities of Scottish ship painters and questions whether there are any styles that are distinctively Scottish within the genre. The earliest examples are anonymous relief carvings on Pictish stelae (St Orland's Stone) and West Highland gravestones (The Rodil Galley). Marine painting as a developed form was introduced to the British Isles from the Netherlands. Practitioners generally tended to concentrate in areas that were the focus of marine activity. Thus the genre was initially strong in the south of England and gradually diffused through the United Kingdom to Scotland, when the latter became a major centre for ship owning and ship building in the nineteenth century. Most Scottish marine artists of the eighteenth century practised their craft in England (eg. W. Anderson and JC Schetky). In the nineteenth century Scotland was important in its own right and Salmon and Clarke developed a sub-genre described as the 'Clyde Style'. This was categorised by a mixture of precise draughtmanship and clear atmospheric lighting which modulated and integrated the melange of elements within the picture field. Local artists fulfilled the needs of local maritime communities, especially among the fishing and whaling centres of north-east Scotland. Apart from the Clyde Style there was no real departure from the national style of ship portraiture. Ship portraiture tends to be conservative and rather international. It does not to any great extent adopt the stylistic trends which modify other branches of the arts. The criteria for an acceptable ship portrait is a combination of precise technological draughtsmanship with an ability to portray the elemental forces of sea and sky. The patrons tended to be knowledgeable seamen and what they expected was essentially a romantic paradigm of man's ability to confront the raw forces of nature with the fruits of his own technology.

Compared to other avant-gardes of modernism the detailed analysis of what has come to be known as the 'St Ives School' is still in its infancy, and lags behind the detailed attention lavished on modernisms in Paris, New York and other western capitals. Most publications about St Ives are by English non-academic agents: The Tate, and popularist writers. Both groups are entrenched to varying degrees in monographic writing that privileges and enhances the masculine myth of the (male) artist as genius. This thesis examines the means and modes that brought about masculine reputation construction and aims to deconstruct much of its assumptions. The First chapter examines the textual evaluative procedures that predominate in art historical writing; the second chapter describes, analyses and deconstructs the 1985 exhibition at the Tate Gallery London, as an event that established the myth and canon of the so-called school of St Ives. Chapters three and four focus on two women painters Margaret Mellis and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham that I argue have been expunged from the school. Both chapters address two consecutive issues: first the artistic milieu, or artworld the artists were involved in, second - their artistic output. This thesis does not present a survey of any kind, instead it aims to render the dominant narrative unstable, and to open up gaps for my intervention so as to redress the imbalances rooted within this topic and question some of its assumptions, mainly in relation to women painters. I have used Bourdieu's notion of habitus both as an overall structuring principle and as a methodological tool in linking the societal and individual so as to expose the gendered imbalance of appraisal in both domains of structure and artistic subjectivity. 1

My hypothesis is that colour as idea acts as a dynamic in the production of meaning and as such is part of what Le Doeuff (1991: 46-49) argues are deeply held epistemes that structure and govern our ways of thinking. I have dealt with the difficulties attendant on the analysis of a phenomenon as insubstantial as colour (as idea and as precept) by assuming Goethe's (1810: 305-323) concept of the enrobement of colour to objects without also attaching Goethe's theoretical hypothesis of moral associations to colour. Thus I combine four different methodologies to broadly related areas and cloak each in colour: the long cultural historical view, the statistical, a case study and an applied art historical comparison. In the first part I have constructed an alternative vision of the development of colour theory from Plato to now, its philosophical, psychological and mythological construction and the consequent framing of women as colour. I discuss how a constructed hierarchy of chromatic value has informed perceptions of gender, arguing that authoritative epistemologies such as colour theory have established fallacious belief systems of chromatic value that reinforce cultural perceptions of gender. In the second I have conducted a three-year perceptual psychology experiment designed to reveal the extent of stereotyped chromatic perceptions of gender in visual arts students at two institutions of Higher Education. The data and results are statistically analysed and the evidence of acculturated chromatic perception is discussed in relation to universal culturally patterned belief systems of chroma and gender. Thirdly I have taken 'yellow' as an epistemological and historical study that proposes and explores an underlying determined semiotic chroma that ensures normalising belief systems survive material and social change. I deconstruct some of the theological mythologising structures and meanings of 'Yellow' and discuss the implications for art history of racism and the recuperation of feminised colour as an adjunct of the phallus. Finally I discuss two women artists, Sonia Delaunay and Bridget Riley and the implications of the word 'colourist' for them as women in art practice. I argue that the general unconscious assumption is that colour originates in emotion instinct and ethnicity and equates women with colour at the level of the imaginary insisting that success for women artists is incumbent upon their colour being confined in a phallic symbolic framework of masculinity. I evidence how acculturated perceptions of 'woman' as colour naturalises and ensures the continuation and institutionalisation of cultural and social systems.

This report is written as the result of an extensive internship from May to September 2011 at the Louisiana State Museum. During my time at the Louisiana State Museum I worked as a full-time marketing intern in the main office at the Presbytere. The aim of this report is to provide a comprehensive overview of the Louisiana State Museum as an organization and I will be focusing on the museum’s marketing department. Drawing from my experiences, research and interviews with key individuals; my report includes an analysis of the organization, description of my internship duties and recommendations for the museum moving forward.

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) is widely believed to be the most established cultural institution of its kind in New Orleans. The museum building is an extension of its landscape, designed and established as a gift that has been enjoyed by the city for more than a century. The term of my internship with the Museum coincided with its Centennial Celebration year of 2011. In possession of one of the Gulf South's most prized permanent collections, NOMA has demonstrated its continued sustainability through the longevity of its establishment in addition to its rapid recovery following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. As with many long-established institutions, the years have made their mark on the New Orleans Museum of Art and there are cracks in its foundation. This point is made most clear in terms of a lax adherence to its stated mission and goals, in addition to a weakened bond with its served community. The following report serves as a case study of the Museum; it addresses organizational issues revealed through situational analyses and personal observations. The report concludes with recommendations prescribed for the future success and sustainability of NOMA in the furtherance of its mission.

This report is the result of a year-long internship with a new theatre company in New Orleans, Delta Theatre Productions, currently operating under the name Delta Productions. I functioned as the Managing Director for this start-up, building organizational infrastructure from the ground up, guiding the process of its first production from idea to final product, and creating the branding of the organization in order to set it apart from its competition and establish it as a viable and healthy theatrical company for the New Orleans community. This report tells the story of how the organization began, reports on my duties as an intern, analyzes the successes and failures of the first year of operation, relates guidance from the best practices of other theatrical organizations around the nation, and finally offers practical recommendations for Delta Productions as it pursues growth and sustainability.

The following internship report documents my marketing internship with the New Orleans Ballet Association in the summer of 2011. Incorporated in 1969, NOBA is one of the few organizations in the Central Gulf region dedicated solely to dance. During my internship, I worked with the Marketing Coordinator and Executive Director on culminating events centered around NOBA's season of dance and education programs. My primary goals were to create and distribute marketing material concerning the upcoming season and to assist the Marketing Coordinator with event promotions. This internship report provides an overview of NOBA based on observational research and in-depth analysis concluded by me. The report examines internal and external issues, researched explanations of best practices performed by similar organizations, and recommendations for improvement within the organizations future contributions to the city of New Orleans.

This is a report on the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA) following an internship with the organization from June until September 2011. This report consists of an organizational summary, an account of the internship, SWOT analysis, best practices and concluding thoughts. Modeled after the Thea Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas, GRFA advocates the importance of art in youth development, and its mission is reflected by George Rodrigue’s testimony of the positive influence of art in his life.