This thesis examines the history and nature of stereotypes propagated against blacks from the African Exploration to present day. Therefore by understanding the nature of these stereotypes one can better understand the consequences theyve had on the black community and theyve helped to maintain racism in America. This thesis further investigates the medias role in maintaining racist attitudes towards blacks and how separating people in categories ranking from superior which consequentially breeds inferiority is advantageous to the majority rule in America. In conclusion the problem presented in this thesis has no concrete solution other than the viewers perspective after engaging the artwork that this thesis supports.

Telemaco Signorini was a member of a nineteenth-century Italian group of artists called the Macchiaioli. He was the son of Giovanni Signorini, a painter. The group came together against the Italian academies and drew inspiration from Decamps and the artists of the Barbizon school in France. Their style emphasizes effect and emotion. The Macchiaioli were a short lived group that only lasted from 1855 to 1862. Signorini and the members of the group participated in 1859 in the Risorgimento, the Italian struggle for independence. Based on this experience Signorini created several canvases depicting the Italian countryside, especially at La Spezia. He was also devoted to literature and in his essays he defended the Macchiaioli on several occasions. After the Macchia had been declared dead by Signorini, he traveled extensively to London and Paris. During these travels, Signorini succumbed to the popular influences of photography and Japanese prints. He began to travel in Italy exclusively beginning in 1884 and continued painting, using a mix of inspirations he had gathered throughout his life, until his death in 1901. This thesis is a comprehensive study of Signorini.

Harlan, Veni S, B.F.A., Louisiana State University, 1981 Master of Fine Arts, Fall Commencement, 2010 Major: Graphic Design Branding the Bear Dissertation directed by Professor Rod Parker Pages in dissertation, 64. Words in abstract, 350. ABSTRACT Currently due to successful restoration efforts, the Louisiana Black Bear sub-species is rebounding. Correspondingly this increase in numbers accompanies the rise of human-bear conflict. Fiction, misinformation, resentment, and devaluation of the bear as a valuable asset stand to undermine the tremendous strides made by multiple public and private agencies over the course of twenty years. Discovery revealed a lack of knowledge by the public not only of the very existence of bears but also their remarkable recovery. An overwhelming number of the 400 Louisiana citizens polled expressed interest in the bear and interest in supporting its restoration. I learned that central to the success of bears in this region is the Black Bear Conservation Coalition, a non-profit organization whose mission includes education, research, and habitat management. The problem is that few people outside conservation circles know of this organizations existence or the role they play. The focus of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries is primarily on enforcement and licensing with a primary goal of delisting the bear for hunting. There is concern that science-based decision making will fall victim to public and political whims. Based on these and other findings its clear that key to bear conservation from this point forward must focus on public perceptions. An integrated branding program is the best solution to accomplish this goal with its ability to inform and engage the public. The Coalition is ideally suited to expand their role and serve as an independent voice for bear and habitat conservation. However, upon a thorough audit of communications I found many obstacle to the Coalition serving in this expanded role. Despite these challenges, the organization has a strong knowledge base, cooperative network, is receptive to recommendations, and eager to employ new tools to support their objectives. Branding the Bear utilizes graphic design and creative communication as tools in cultivating a positive and informed image of the Louisiana Black Bear to citizens of Louisiana and the greater region. Its my hope that branding strategies utilizing the Coalition will bridge the gap between the historic conservation of the bear and citizen tolerance and appreciation.

Designing Graphic Design History: Teaching for the 21st Century Classroom undertakes the development of a web-based Graphic Design History interactive timeline (GDHit), intended as a user-generated online database for potentially all graphic design enthusiasts, but specifically faculty and students within the traditional graphic design history course. GDHit seeks to continue the implementation of new media and emerging digital technologies in a traditional, lecture-oriented environment by inviting the user (or audience) to contribute the content for the timeline, while fostering new forms of course engagement for students in this digital age. In keeping with the tenets of the digital age and its inherent spirit of cross-disciplinary collaboration, the author engaged two computer scientists over the thesis development period (academic year 2010-2011). They developed the framework for how content is entered into and filtered within the database, as well as aiding with technical aspects of the interactive timeline.

The Baptistery of San Giovanni represents a complex historical precedent for Italian Renaissance art. Located within the heart of Florence, across from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in the Piazza del Duomo, the Baptistery holds three sets of gilded bronze doors spanning more than a century: the south set of doors by Andrea Pisano, and the north and east sets of doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The stylistic qualities and compositional sources of each door have been the subject of much discussion since their completion, and these are re-examined in this paper. Special attention is also devoted to the Arte di Calimala, the prominent Florentine guild that commissioned the doors and dictated repairs to and restorations of the Baptistery during the most notable period in its history. My thesis explores the significance of the patron for the meaning of the doors, as well as investigates the position of each door in its respective setting. By means of detailed analyses of comparable works and a historical interpretation of the individuals and organizations involved, I attempt to provide a fresh perspective on the sources and significance of the priceless bronze doors of the Florentine Baptistery.

In Florences prestigious district of Lion dOro, the Basilica of San Lorenzo, like numerous other medieval churches, began a significant expansion project during the first quarter of the Quattrocento. As a necessary means to raise capital and offset the enormous costs associated with the renovations, new chapels were attached to the main body of existing structures and privately endowed by established families; moreover, such projects allowed them to celebrate their status, flex their political muscle and extol their familys patron saints. The Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo, for the burgeoning Medici, was an opportunity to construct their dynastic pantheon, setting the standard for future Renaissance building enterprises. Designed and built between the years 1417 and 1428, the structure served dual roles as both a sacristy and a family mausoleum. Giovanni di Bicci de Medici, the original patron, followed by his heirs, Cosimo and Lorenzo de Medici, assembled the most prominent Florentine artists to design, furnish and ornament the structure with works of art in the name of their ascending political domination. This thesis represents an exploration of how each element of the Old Sacristythe architecture, sculpture and paintingcombines symbiotically with every other element in the Sacristy, iconographically as well as stylistically, to create un bel composto.

Vessel Manifest explores vessel forms and their pathways through time and experience. In using semiotic definitions to define the term vessel I investigate the ways in which it has become profound in my life. In seeking comfort and in searching for an explanation for the process of life and death, I look to the ways in which a vessel can manifest itself, physically, emotionally, mentally, and metaphysically. Memories of life spent on the water and theories and tenets of Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy are sewn together through images of physical vessels and abstract vessel forms. The large-scale intaglio prints incorporate multi-media methods to enhance their sense of physicality. Form and scale are exaggerated and reversed to amplify organic forms and human systems. Through this enhanced sense of corporality, Vessel Manifest becomes a recording of the collective identity that is our soul, as it continues its passage forward.

Technology has given us many ways of communicating. The most emerging and evolving network of exchanging information today is social media. Communicating in Todays Network is a thesis that examines and explores different trends in social media. This body of this work is a result of data collected by surveying active users of social media in society. The results are visually communicated through information graphics. It is intended to inform designers of the importance in learning and identifying ways to communicate with our new developing medium, social media.

I set a task to take a new look at local Louisiana landscape and to understand this place where I live. The spaces most powerful were leftover, abandoned and forbidden industrial places, including an old lock, stretches of the levee along the Mississippi River, highway underpasses and chemical, energy and sugar cane processing plants. Working from observational sketches and using local materials such as river mud and plant fibers for papermaking, I make prints on handmade paper, books and video that bring this latent landscape into view. Images and surfaces become primitive, disorienting, psychological, dark and changing landscapes.

This body of work is about looking and contemplating. Intense concentration requires solitude, which is why the figures that appear in the work are either literally isolated or seem detached from others around them. Sometimes the events the figures witness are ordinary, but more often their environments have mysterious or whimsical qualities. The whimsy comes from two places; fictional literature and childhood fantasies. Reading connects me to things and ideas outside of myself and allows the work to vacillate between the reality of normal daily observation and the mental escape of daydreaming. I want to make a place where everything is better and to which people can escape. Common iconography Ive developed includes dogs, kites, homes, trees, blimps, and people I know. This work is asking you to notice and appreciate the details of your landscape; imagined and real.