The work illustrated and discussed in this paper was exhibited in the Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, November, 1974, as my graduate show. Presented here is a written explanation of the work contained in that show.

This creative project is concerned with archetypal forms expressed in art, design and communication, from Neolithic rock carvings and native American Indian petroglyphs to individual graphic languages that look to the 'primitives' like those of Joan Miro and Neville Brody. It is my belief that through the study of this diverse collection of graphic signs and archetypal forms, one can develop a system of signs that cross barriers of language and culture. A morphology, a collection of possibilities, derived from such archetypal forms, could provide designers with a foundation for the development and use of symbol signs and sign systems.

Studies have been done on contemporary non-traditional quilts in the larger quilting context in Alabama (Arnett et al., 2002; Callahan, 1987), Arizona (Hazard, 1993), Arkansas (Benberry, 2000), and Kentucky (Benberry, 1992). However, from my examination of the literature no intensive study had been done on contemporary, non-traditional African American quilts in Florida. This study examined the quilts and quilting processes of three African American contemporary non-traditional women quilters in Florida. Although there are African American male quilters my focus was on women quilt artists. For this study I defined traditional quilts as those quilts that utilized long-established patterns, designs and exacting construction techniques and that were usually used as bedcoverings. Contemporary non-traditional quilts were made within the last twenty-five years for artistic purposes, did not largely consist of established patterns, and were without a planned functional use. The study explored the meaning of quilting to the quilters and the overall implications for art education. I began by exploring the general history of quilting and African American traditional quilting and ended with the more recent history of art quilts and African American art quilters. Participants were sought through a combination of online and mail-in surveys. The surveys or survey links were sent to Internet quilting groups, Florida quilting guilds, and quilt shops in an attempt to locate members of the African American quilting population in Florida. Of the quilters interested in participating in the study I selected three African American quilters based on their survey information that reflected the diversity in experience and quilting I sought. The quilters were from different areas of the state, represented different age ranges, and quilting techniques. Quilters were videotaped and photographed as I interviewed and observed them. The report takes narrative form (Eisner, 1998) and addresses themes that arose during the study as well as the research questions. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009. / Date of Defense: November 7, 2008. / Quilting, African American Quilting, Contemporary Quilt Artists, Art Quilts, Women Artists / Includes bibliographical references. / Tom Anderson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Maxine Jones, Outside Committee Member; David Gussak, Committee Member; Pat Villeneuve, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to explore the design of the contemporary Kuwaiti home to determine if it meets the needs of the contemporary Kuwaiti women in terms of privacy, social interaction, and aesthetic preferences, as well as connection to the past. To this end, a case study was conducted in a Kuwaiti house which included architectural and interior elements common in contemporary Kuwaiti homes. The research techniques of observation, visual documentation, and interview were used to explore how the home was used, with specific focus on three historical architectural features including the guest salon, the screen, and the courtyard. This exploration revealed that modern design failed to respond to meet many of the Kuwaiti women's needs for privacy, contact with nature, free movement within the home, and social interaction with family members. The study offers design recommendations that better meet the needs of Kuwaiti women in their homes. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Interior Design in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: June 27, 2007. / Architecture, Woman, Lattice, Screen, Courtyard, Kuwait, Traditional House, Interior Design, Contemporary / Includes bibliographical references. / Lisa Waxman, Professor Directing Thesis; Eric Wiedegreen, Committee Member; Jill Pable, Committee Member.

The Girl Scout organization's mission is to build "girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place." The organization often lacks adequate facilities to fully cater to girls and the issues they face today. Most properties owned by the Girl Scouts are located in rural areas which are not easily accessible by the majority of the members to fulfill their mission. These facilities do not help the organization challenge the stereotype that Girl Scouts is only about selling cookies and camping. Furthermore, the image that the Girl Scout organization is a progressive and innovative one is not portrayed to the communities they are in through the facilities they occupy. This is because, as mentioned before, most of the facilities are located in rural areas and revolve around outdoor activities and connecting girls with nature. In no way does this thesis argue that this connection with nature is somehow unimportant or unneeded. However, this thesis does make the case that the majority of the Girl Scout owned buildings located within city and urban areas lack inclusive functions and appeal to draw in new members and offer existing members facilities to be proud of. To rectify this situation, this thesis has proposed that Girl Scout councils design and construct Girl Scout Urban Campuses. As defined in this thesis, a Girl Scout Urban Campus is, "a facility utilized by Girl Scout members for the purposes of education and fun. These properties are similar to camps and can be used in many of the same ways camps are utilized. However, campuses seek to combine the spaces essential to the functioning of any council (such as program spaces, service spaces, meeting spaces, camping places and council shops) to a central location while also providing programs geared towards urban lifestyles. These are additional programs offered as a contrast to the rural/ outdoor centered programming offered at the camps." The idea for building these facilities came from Girl Scout facilities around the country, several of which were specifically given the name "urban campus". Other ideas came from Girl Scout buildings whose innovative features were worth consideration. The objective of this thesis was to prepare design programming for one specific Girl Scout council, the Girl Scout Council of the Florida Panhandle. The profiles and requirements of the members were examined in this study. The specific ideas taken from the members of the council were then translated into individual spaces. The spaces were broken down into a programming format to determine the specific aspects and design features which were required within each individual space. Further, the spaces were grouped into categories based on user access. Each space reviewed various aspects of design such as atmosphere, security, approximate square footage and design characteristics. Ideas for design features were proposed and explained for each space. Many of the spaces were given bubble flow diagrams to show circulation, as well as images to help the reader understand how the space might look. The compilation of these individual spaces can later be translated into an actual design. It is the hope that this thesis will provide the Girl Scout Council of the Florida Panhandle with a springboard to continue with the design and fundraising processes in order to fulfill this vision. Furthermore, it is the hope that other councils around the United States will use the information in this thesis to begin to create their own Girl Scout Urban Campuses. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Interior Design in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: April 28, 2010. / Urban Campus, Girl Scouts, Girl Scout, Design, Design Program, Trefoil Effect, Camp, Juliette Gordon Low / Includes bibliographical references. / Tasuku Ohazama, Professor Directing Thesis; Jill Pable, Committee Member; Lisa K. Waxman, Committee Member.

'The Aesthetics of Exile' seeks to understand and represent a condition of exile through visual practice. The following text comprises two parts. Part one is divided into three sections, and serves to outline the form of the project, as well as the thinking behind it. Section 1 introduces the visual exploration and reasoning within the practice, Section 2 summarises its contextual and conceptual grounding, and Section 3 describes the visual material to be viewed, focussing on the processes behind each individual series of work. In Part two an essay on the artwork written by Jonathan Miles is reproduced in full to provide a further reading of the practice. The text is by way of introduction and reference but, ultimately, the evidence and outcome of the research lies in the artwork itself, which is presented here in a series of ten folios. These folios document chronologically the visual exploration and progression of the project. Each series of work selected for reproduction is represented by an edition of unbound c-prints and/or DVD, individually housed and titled. The final folio documents the concluding exhibition of the research project, as it was installed and assessed in the gallery setting.

This PhD by portfolio comprises of a critical commentary reflecting on a visual art practice form 1988 to 2013 with a particular focus on four series of recent work: 'Dream' (2011-13) [Appendix B], 'Wide Shut' (2013) [Appendix D], 'Self contain' (2012-13) [Appendix C] and 'L'Inconnue de la Seine' (2010-) [Appendix A] and two exhibitions, Absurd Impositions (2011, V&A's Museum of Childhood) and Self Contained (2013, Freud Museum London). In exploring how the work suggests 'the vision of others' (Hilty, 1996) might be accommodated I exploit the meanings of the word vision. Initially concerned with how the work represents sight and looking, that is both how people become objects of sight as well as how thye see, I explore vision as the formation and communication of an individual outlook or view of the world, that is as dreams, deisres and sense of identity. To map this complexity, I suggest looking, materiality, and narrativity as the core concerns of my painting. The critical commentary is in three parts. The first, Vision, explores the ways in which portraiture opens up an awareness of the ethics of looking and depiction. Framed by notions of a gendered, embodied gaze explored in my earlier painting, I discuss the dynamics of sight within the painted portrait, in particular the reciprocity of look between the artist who originates the depiction, the subject depicted and the viewer for whom the work is made. This includes a discussion of Michael Fried's notion of 'absorption' and in particular what this might mean for depictions of children. The second part, 'Re-Vision', critically assesses how the 'touch' of drawing relates to sight and sightlessness in portraiture. This examination of the materiality of the work articulated how the processes of making inflect the work's meaning. It reflects on the use of the photograph and doubled imagery and on the different forms of mark making and geture employed in the drawings that I propose are able to bring a particular quality of ambivalence to a meditation on maternal gaze. 'Imaging Narrative', the last section, examines strategies for facilitating the reading of text as image and image as text. It explores my material choices, use of juxtaposition, the work's site and a notion of return and how these are deployed to encourage certain interpretations. Here I make a claim for a method of material juxtapositions that allows for a literary overshadowing of the visual, allowing the viewer as an active, imaginative part in the construction of meaning. The idea of autobiography as a fiction is utilised (via Anne Wagner and Paul de Man) in relation to self-portraiture and art-work by women, who are positioned by their gender outside their medium's history and heritage. Through the work I argue there is a direct feminist perspective on the depiction of the gendered and maternal gaze. I draw on art historical and literary criticism to elucidate the work's potential for feminist enquiry. Ultimately these reflections tentatively propose that the work, via a feminist reading, might point the way to a recalibration of certain values within contemporary art practice in relation to genre, site and subject, and through the work's relation to portraiture, drawing, museums and children. My conclusion reflects on the difficulty of an ethical representation of others and its consequential dispersed notion of portraiture. However, I also claim that alongside what Maria Walsh has called within these works 'maternalised optics', 'a shared space of intimacy without judgement' [Walsh 2013: 69-76] there is a perverse and violent aspect to the version of the maternal gaze they propose, creating an undercurrent in the work which leads to a productive ambivalence.

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Before I began this thesis, I examined my previous work and a consistent quality emerged. l tended to assemble (synthesize) things (entities) that were seemingly unlike (disparate). I q u e s t i o n e d my approach and its validity as a design methodology. I found, through investigation into the nature of my p r o c e s s and the process of other artists and designers that specific methods of synthesis could be defined. In this thesis I have outlined three synthesis methodologies. They are not the only methods that exist, but were the ones I focused on for my thesis project. After l defined these methods of synthesis and did visual and verbal explorations, the possibility of developing a process for generating visual and verbal content occurred to me. I was not sure what the effects of the process would be. It was not until after the thesis exhibition that I realized I had developed a process of elaboration. For the thesis exhibition I created two and three dimensional exercises based on v i s u a I + v e r b a I combinations These studies were then applied for the purposes of the exhibition.