I am wandering wonderingly through the unplanned material atmosphere shaped by differences in temperature and moisture. The chaotic nature of weather phenomena is the catalyst for visual exploration of the subterranean catacombs of reality. The work is metaphor of nature and its creation of form and substance. Observing art and nature: I am allowing nature to be the instigator of art.

Create a place for learning Develop an interior system that addresses the under utilized spaces in existing higher education schools directed towards distance learning Design a place for one and a place for few, within a place for many Traditional classroom/school environments were developed around a specific program that addresses the needs of a teacher-class environment. Distance learning programs are introducing a new approach to higher education and require a new approach to learning environments. The goal of this project is to understand the development of the traditional classroom environment in order to assess the changes that need to be made in order to design a space that addresses the needs of a new learning environment. The study of the technical challenges, as well as the flow and circulation of distance learning classrooms will create a platform for change. Efficiency and effectiveness are the key ideas in developing this new program. Classrooms that are used for a variety of purposes need to be considered in a new way. By studying the daily functions of these new learning environments we will find ways to re-invent existing spaces that can adapt to the students, their needs, and the financial benefits for the administration that take advantage of the available resources.

This book documents a design study and creative project undertaken toward the fulfillment of a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Interior Environments at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. This book documents a year long accumulation of study and research done toward the development of an early intervention, therapy and research center for children with autism. This creative project demonstrates how an environment can be a catalyst for social interaction, way finding, therapy, and intervention. The goal was to design a space that would be multi-functional and also benefit the surrounding community. This design study will explain how colors and materials can affect children with autism and what colors and materials are detrimental to their functional abilities.

I subscribe to the notion that art is the process of capturing a moment in life, by way of projection on to an artist's senses, and a subsequent filtering through his mind, and ultimately a materialization through his hands and instruments. However, that is just the beginning. To take a life of its own, the work of art should further find its way into the minds of its viewers or listeners again through a series of projections and filtering. The excitement of the moment that impinges upon the senses of the artist can be very powerful at times, so powerful that the artist can be blinded by its sheer power, in which case the intervention of critique can play a vital role.A discussion of how a piece of my own artwork comes into existence is in order: the relationship between me and the material world plays a pivotal role in my creations. This relationship is one of sharing the same space, and in doing so, impacting character, essence and meaning to materials. This process entails a change of meaning, importance and use. In the stage of design, I see the work first fledgling, and then taking flight - spontaneously, without forcing my imagination. The constructed form usually just dawns upon me when I am not contemplating.

This is a written defense to accompany the MFA Thesis Exhibition You’re Gonna Be Ok, an installation encompassing video, and other sensory components. This defense provides background for the artist’s motivation to make this work, along with a theoretical framework used to construct the installation. Accompanying photos, video, and PowerPoint are also included to give reference and documentation of the installation event.

The design intent of this thesis is to deconstruct the elements of the beer brewing process to allow the public to engage, enjoy, and appreciate the process while dining. It is to create a site for a craft brewery that is local to the neighborhood of The Fan. Allowing the public to engage, cultivate and create enthusiasm for the brewing process. To deconstruct the industrial process of brewing beer to allow accessibility for the public to enjoy the process while eating, drinking, and learning.

Davida Rochlin said, “Nobody thought much about the front porch when most Americans had them and used them. The great American front porch was just there, open and sociable, an unassigned part of the house that belonged to everyone and no one, a place for family and friends to pass the time.” The landscape in which those porches existed has changed. Our traditional views of housing and neighborhoods (single family homes with a cul-de-sac at the end) really aren’t the norm anymore. In the last 10 years more Americans have moved to, and are living in cities than in the past (Lamber, Lisa 2012). Currently, 80.7% of Americans live in urban areas, up 1.7% from 2000 (Lamber, Lisa 2012). With this migration, there has been a surge in renovated, multi-family housing. While this does solve the problem of allowing more families to move back into urban areas, these buildings often have no sense of community or neighborhood. You don’t have neighbors, you simply live next to people. The porch used to be a symbol of community, a sociable space. Neighbors would sit outside and watch kids play and catch up with each other. But both technology and our own self-imposed isolations have lead us to slowly loose touch with our physical neighbors. The intention of this project is to create a community, a neighborhood, within a single building housing multiple families through porches and their variations.

The nature of perception and discernment through an examination of hypotheses and theories considered peculiar in their time but which had at least some popular, scientific or social support.

This thesis examines the history of interior design for the Union-Castle passenger liners sailing from Southampton to South Africa between 1945 and 1977, when the last Union-Castle ship left Cape Town. Interrogating the passenger accommodation of five Union-Castle ships, Pretoria Castle (1948). Edinburgh Castle (1948), Pendennis Castle (1960), Windsor Castle (1961), and Reina del Mar (1973), it analyses the design choices and decisions taken by Union-Castle and its managing company, British & Commonwealth Shipping Ltd. (B&C), posits reasons for these, and considers their implications for the creation of Union-Castle's interiors. Drawing upon established design-historical methods, I also argue throughout for an interdisciplinary approach, in particular since this enables a reading of the 'un-designed' and non-canonical space. I contend that it is essential to engage with the wider histories that provided the environment for Union-Castle's operations, and argue that this is a design history that cannot be meaningfully written without also tracing the relationship between Union-Castle, B&C and the Afrikaner National Party government (1948-1994). It is this relationship that provides the underlying discussion of the thesis the extent to which the co-constitutive themes of both the 'representation of politics' and the 'politics of representation' informed the interior design of Union-Castle's ships Such was the nature of the National Party's hegemony that its political ethos can clearly be demonstrated to have had an impact not only upon the process by which, but also the interiors of the vehicles with which, the shipping line conducted business. Of critical significance to this history is the fact that nowhere on board any of the ships that provide my case studies is there ever any reference to black Africa Instead, a series of interiors were produced which were variously inscribed with wholly 'white' ideas about emigration, nationhood and colonial relations between Britain and Africa, and, in the post-colonial period, with ideas about British heritage versus modernity power-broking vis a vis Pretoria and with discourses associated with the rise of air travel and mass tourism.

ABSTRACT RURALITY By Storm Ketron Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, RURALITY, held at Tipton Street Gallery, 126 Spring Street, Downtown Johnson City, TN, from December 2nd through December 6th. The show exhibit consists largely of works done on bristol board known as the Discography Series, as well as a larger installation piece. The pieces introduce ideas of labor, materiality, and time.