The artist presents his Master of Fine Arts exhibition, entitled Ìlànà Òrí-òkè Àtiyanrìn: T(h)reading Sands and Mountains. The exhibit was mounted in Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City, TN, from February 1 to February 9, 2024. The exhibition consisted of 13 artworks, including mixed media paintings, fibers, sculptures, and installations. In this thesis, Akintobi discusses his life experiences growing up in Nigeria and traveling to the United States for his MFA, and how these experiences have affected his art over the past three years. Through the exhibition, the artist delves into the intersection and variances of cultural perspectives, exploring identity and creativity within the dynamic context of these two cultures. This body of work is a visual translation of his observations and comparisons of his everyday life in southwest Nigeria and his everyday life in Johnson City, TN, USA.

In this thesis, I explore my artistic practice, which confronts the institutionalized cultural norms that control women's identity and sexuality in rural Kenya. Utilizing self-portraiture, my work serves as a mirror, reflecting on my own identity and experiences growing up in Kenya. In some of the artworks, I subvert these restrictions, reclaiming my place both physically and metaphorically. My studio practice encompasses drawing, painting, installation, and fiber arts. Inspired by my culture, my work questions the balance between cultural tradition and personal identity. I use various materials, including charcoal, fabric, oil paints, pastels, and bleach. Through my art, I invite viewers into a broader conversation on the liberation and autonomous expression of women, compelling them to question and ultimately redefine the boundaries imposed upon them by their cultural spheres.

Focusing on artists Frida Kahlo and Guillermo Gomez-Pefia, my thesis concerns borders of all kinds: between nations and cultures, between varying artworks, context, and audiences, and between myth and reality. These border relationships are subject to constant evolution and negotiation, and I chose Kahlo's paintings and Gomez-Pefia's performance work to illustrate how two artists have portrayed border relationships across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Mexico and the United States, because both artists draw upon borders to hash out shifting personal, political, and cultural identities. Frida Kahlo's nationalist politics led her to portray the Mexican-U.S. border as a force of antagonism. In her modern context, this border starkly indicated a divide between colonial ambitions and domination, between the First and Third world paradigms of her time. Kahlo's consistent technique of self-portraiture led Germaine Greer to declare her "the first ever true performance artist," and in many ways Kahlo's work and life foreshadows contemporary questions of hybridity and pluralism brought to light by Guillermo Gomez-Pefia decades later. Gomez-Pefia's more direct performance pieces question dualistic borders by breaking boundaries and envisioning a borderless world, where boundaries are created and blurred organically rather than dictated by social or political elites. Like Kahlo, Gomez-Pefia's work is highly political, and his indictment of America's negative and dangerous images of Mexico and Mexican immigrants is particularly fierce. Both artists have produced impressive, controversial work that is dense and often difficult to understand, but it is also work that forces audiences to question the status quo and the boundaries we frequently take for granted.

Although the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus stands as a foundation for the early Christian sculptural traditional scholars have devoted little serious study to the role it played in its cultural context of350s Rome. For the past four hundred years since its discovery, stylistic and chronological discussion of the Christian intercolumnar scenes has dominated any scholarly interpretations of this monument. The goal of this thesis is to shed light on how the sarcophagus interacted with its audience and patron, rather than to situate the images in a timeline of motifs. The interplay between the Roman elite, both pagan and Christian, the emperor, and the Church influenced the propagandistic goals of the sarcophagus. It is my opinion that the family of Junius Bassus, fixed between their pagan peers and Christian emperor, used the seasonal and calendar-inspired imagery of the ends and the ad sanctos burial of the sarcophagus at St. Peter's Basilica to propagandize Christianity as a religion that offered its members material and eternal wealth.

The intent of this study is to give credit to the female Renaissance painter, Sofonisba Anguissola of Cremona, Italy, for the amalgamation of the portrait and genre traditions in art. Anguissola indirectly influenced the Dutch artists of the Golden Age, who are now liberally assigned credit for the blending of the portraiture and genre painting styles in the· late seventeenth century. Her overlooked innovation affected genre and portrait paintings for centuries to come, consequently having a remarkable impact on the history of art. This study will clarify how Anguissola came about this revolutionary approach to painting and to demonstrate the manner in which her work was almost certainly filtered through the eyes and hands of subsequent genre and portrait artists. This study will elucidate these concepts through an investigation of her social environment, her innovations, her artistic training, and her seemingly inexorable limitations as a woman artist.

Throughout the years, portraiture has acted as a reflection of the changing aesthetics of both society and art. As traditions progressed from one way of thinking to new ideas, art and particularly portraiture has acted as a visual record of these changes. From the elaborate portrayals of the aristocrats and their lush surroundings, displaying their wealth and prestige to the expressionist paintings of the 20th century, which were more concerned with portraying the intensity of the paint and the emotional state of the sitter than an accurate physical account, the apparel and accoutrements of the sitter have remained as an important factor in determining a person's identity. The following images are a reflection of the emphasis that our youth and consumer driven society has put on the outward appearance of an individual. The constant barrage of advertising has forced us to either accept or reject the mainstream ideals of beauty and fashion. As a result, despite our best efforts to separate ourselves as unique individuals through apparel, often times the choices that we make are compelled by acceptance of a larger social group.

The story you are about to read is one revealing how art infiltrated my home. It is an unplugged speech describing the methodology, visions. interests, and relationships behind my photographs. My photographs document my ideas of space in places personal to me. I talk about carrying the idea of space and its relationship to Jean Baudrillard’s theories of simulation and simulacra. I do not want to enforce any illusions of metaphysical importance behind my work. This work was made out of creative science. My goal was to convey a thought, and this thesis is to share the experience of doing so.

This critical design project showcases obstacles that the Qatari culture and society impose on their female youth, hindering them from becoming independent individuals. It critiques the society and its social pressures. The project stimulates people to think by challenging their assumptions and perceptions, specifically social perception and judgment, family authority, and gender favoritism. This is achieved through hybridized accessories that are embedded with a meta-meaning that arouses curiosity, invites questions, and stimulates thoughts. Through the design of these appealing, high quality, and functionally viable everyday accessories, the project aims to communicate the social and cultural forces which impede Qatari female youths’ becoming individuals who dream, achieve, and thrive.

This thesis examines the intersection of math and art by focusing on three specific branches of math: the fourth dimension, non-Euclidean geometry, and chaos and fractals. Different genres of art interact with each of these branches of math. The influence of the fourth dimension can easily be seen in Cubism and Russian Constructivism. Non-Euclidean geometry guided some of M.C. Escher’s work, and it inspired the Crochet Coral Reef project. Chaos and fractals can be found in art and architecture throughout history, but Vincent van Gogh and Jackson Pollock are notable examples of artists who used chaos in their work. Some artists incorporate math into their work in a rigorous, exacting manner, while others take inspiration from a general concept and provide a more abstract interpretation. Regardless of mathematical accuracy, mathematically inspired art can provide a greater understanding of mathematical concepts.

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