These things, they speak in whispers. Come close, lean in, listen up. Whisper back. Tell me everything. I know youve been here, too. I know youll understand. I know you have a shoebox full of memories just like these hidden deep inside your closet. I know.

The pots in the exhibition Trace speak both to my desire to belong, to connect to my beginnings, and yet to still trace my own path forward; they are about making connections and missing connections. Through these pots I ask questions of myself and the world around me in an attempt to negotiate the edges of my life. How do I feel connected and present in my own life and relationships? How do I feel connected to my family and my roots, while still finding my own path? What does it mean to belong in a family that is divided by great physical distance? What is the cure for loneliness? My work is intended to convey a sense of life lived, and life still to be lived. Each pot is a snapshot of the journey, a tether that connects me to me, and me to youa memory frozen in mud-made-stone for years to come.

Sometimes one is unaware of one thing: a rule, a boundary, a difference all of which we cannot see with our eyes, but learning certainly present. When one rcognizes the reality of it, decisions are made. Those decisions shape the world as we know it. Beyond the Lines is an exploratory project that aims to increase ones awareness and reveal that humans are whole beings that can surpass barriers that life places in front of them. This thesis explores human connections and separations, by using the concept of dots and lines, in ways both literally and metaphorical. Through visual investigations I will explain how these lines are developed and how the development of these lines affects our society. I use fundamental visual elements specifically, dots and lines to express an in-depth concept through a simple visual language. Through my exploration dots and lines are the basic foundation of our everyday life and environment both literally and metaphorically. In todays society, we are all part of a great struggle created by lines of separation. These lines include racism, sexism, gender roles, homophobia, religion, and so on which are all widely known as concepts that cause a great and unfortunate divide between us and our own neighbors. However, not every line drawn has a negative effect and some actually work to bring groups of people together, such as our cultures. It is very important to me that the viewer can be visually engaged in my work and has the opportunity to interact with it as well. My exploration is constructed from a wide framework of various media and formats such as video, a large-scale poster series, and book design to involve and create a rapport with my audience.

In this thesis paper, I argue that the works in the exhibition 'Chronicle & Character' aim to demonstrate artistic citizenship and can contribute positively to society by provoking conversation about universally applicable (but often uncomfortable) topics. Experts such as David J. Elliot state that being an artistic citizen means that ones concerns as an artist must shift from issues constrained to the artist alone to those of the artists surrounding community. The exhibition 'Chronicle & Character' contains works that serve as detailed chronicles of the medical or physiological experiences of my loved ones. This body of work presents how three different methods of art making narrative oil painting, abstracted ink wash and collage can represent physiological changes that I have closely observed. In doing so, the works can investigate the parallels of life and death; sickness and health; fear and bravery; and fragmentation and regeneration. These works aim to stimulate questions and dialogue about these challenging phenomena; a dialogue that can conquer loneliness among people who have or are experiencing similar ordeals. This can potentially forge unity that is beneficial to those individuals and their communities, exemplifying the power of artistic citizenship.

Artist Statement I forget my keys and usually misplace my telephone but I know exactly where my camera is at any given moment. I capture moments for my artwork as well as my own personal benefit. Not all the images will be translated into paint or clay and not all the images are those filled with beauty. However, a bicycle leaning on the corner of a house in Key West and a two hundred dollar pair of shoes from when I was single are a few of the memories that evolved from snapshot to artwork. My photographs inspire my colorful paintings and patterned clay work. I use them as a way to document my personal journeys and evolution of my life.

I create process-oriented, mixed media work in an intuitive manner. I develop compositions by choosing from a wide range of materials and media. I have established a visual vocabulary that I use formally and, on occasion, symbolically to express my personal thoughts. My prints are primarily collagraphs pulled from plates that are constructed using foam, rope, sticks, cardboard, or screen prints. My fiber works are mixed media and often combine soft and stiff fabrics, dyes, pigments, embroidery, quilting, and screen printing. At times I find ways to integrate hard, rigid materials such as kiln-formed and sandblasted glass into my fiber pieces. My pieces tend to be intimately sized and detail oriented, requiring an up close and personal look from the viewer.

My book arts explore the creative process. I am interested in what drives an artist to create and what can paralyze that creative action by blocking the process. I examine such issues as finding one’s personal muse and overcoming procrastination and self-doubt. Implements of exploration such as maps, compasses, and globes are materials included in this series of sculptural books. I also offer meticulous renderings of cacti, a personal symbol of resilience and power, as an illustration of finding and accepting my muse as “The Everyday.” Drawn in pencil on gessoed wooden panels, these detailed drawings are examples of discoveries and conclusions made in my exploration.

Baby's Day Out explores the world through a phenomenological newness that is expressed within abstract figurative painting. Fact and fiction blend in this fantastical array of emotions and real-world referents. I relied on quick mark-making, intuition, and gestural brushwork to explore representations of psychic and emotional states. The results are reminiscent of dreams, poems, secret whispers, unconscious fantasies, and delusions. The viewer is left to navigate the aporia of the space, by gingerly extending each limb forward and backward, to wander from piece to piece. Meaning is relative as the content of each painting is dependent on the interpretive lens of the individual: this is Baby Time.

The work of Enlightenment philosophe Denis Diderot went largely unpublished during his lifetime, and upon its discovery in the nineteenth century, his originality was overlooked because of the perceived quaintness of his tastes. Thankfully, as his body of work became better understood and more accessible, his reputation steadily improved. The discipline of literary art criticism is now thought of as having its origins in Diderots Salons, a series of letters containing his thoughts on the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculptures biennial exhibitions in the Palace of the Louvre. These were circulated among an elite clientele who were not able to attend the Salons themselves, and though these letters have been studied by numerous scholars, they are typically treated as a period compendium, the contents of which are better summarized than explained. Being that they are the founding documents of such a young discipline, and that the contents themselves are already sufficiently well-known, I have endeavored to understand these contents in light of the anglomanie which took France by storm in the first half of the eighteenth century. A general account of Diderots Anglophilia was first given in R. Loyalty Crus Diderot as a Disciple of English Thought, but Crus treatment of the Salons figures only marginally in what is a very broad chapter on Diderots general aesthetics. As I am concerned with the Salons as an art historical document, I have instead organized this paper around those painters who are considered the major representatives of the eighteenth century and the ways in which Diderots Anglophilia determined his perception of them. There are, in my opinion, three principal qualities which Diderots exposure to English philosophy predisposed him to seek out in art: the relatable, the explicit, and the useful. The first two are the means by which the third is reached, and each shall be covered in its own chapter.

Urban Illusions is an immersive and interactive documentary experience that curates moments of reality in virtual environments to educate and expose viewers to a string of social and political issues that have been exposed in Baton Rouge. These moments also reflect a transformative time across the United States. The research and exhibition experiments with 360-degree videos and virtual reality to document issues occurring from racial tension stemming from prejudicial police violence and residual segregation that is still present in Baton Rouge. The intent of this work is to establish a methodology benefiting from modern technology in order to document real life through virtual space to inform the viewer about social problems in the everyday experience of disadvantaged groups across America. The methodology framework used for Urban Illusions has the potential to be utilized by other digital artists and collaborators to engage and educate the viewers about a multitude of contemporary concepts.