The impulse to resolve and interpret messages drives creativity and understanding. As graphic designers, we may try to communicate familiar ideas in an unfamiliar way - unfamiliar, but unique, memorable, and engaging. By utilizing the theory and practice of psychology and the cognitive processes involved in assigning influence, importance, recognition and associations with signifiers in the mind, we can strengthen visual communication. Theoretical and applied psychological techniques and models will provide the basis for an exploration and development of new methodologies and tools that will enhance the creative process for graphic designers.

BEHIND THE FIRE LINEA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, 2004. Major Director: Jim Long, Department Chair. Behind the Line of Fire is a documentary of the professional lives of a group of firefighters. Inspired by the events of September 11th, it has been an ongoing journey for me as I continue to interact with an photograph these individuals doing the job that they live for. My goal for this project has been to work within the guidelines of a documentary, a genre that has a rich, diverse, and defined history. I did not want to show scenes in which firefighters were depicted in typically iconographic scenarios. I have not made any images to date representing exploding structures with firefighters risking life and limb fighting the fire, nor have I shown the firefighters performing heroic acts such as rescuing a child or an animal. I believe the imagery I have created presents firefighters in a different light. These are men and women working. There are no hidden meanings or agendas involved. The photos are to be taken at face value as images of people whose lives revolve around what they do.

AbstractPAINT MEDIATIONS Theresa Faye Pfarr, Master of Fine ArtA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.Virginia Commonwealth University, 2004Major Director: Ruth Bolduan Associate Professor, Painting and Printmaking DepartmentMy paintings are contentions. I work in response, answer, and reaction to the media world. I carry a collection of incongruent images in my mind, bits and parts of the images I deal with everyday. The images stuff my mailbox, clutter my space and get in my head. I am questioning, though praising, the exploits of advertising and its mode of symbolic function. Whether their exploits are ethical is really of no concern to me in comparison to our cultural belief systems, which allow them. Advertising doesn't exploit children more than they are exploited already. In my paint investigations I forge and draw parallels to relocate meaning, as does the media. Through painting figure into space and space into figure things begin to dissolve or evolve, making the paintings both figure and of figure. The children in my paintings claim their spaces and close out the adult world.

This thesis includes the focus of my creative process regarding my MIS degree. Artists that have influenced me along with experiemental art techniques are discussed.

In the past two years my paintings have fluctuated from figuration to abstraction. Dense surfaces, physical weight, and sense of touch have been dominant characteristics of my work. I have tried to animate oil paint by pushing it to the outer edges of the painting support and by using it to perform unorthodox tasks. I have stretched the limits of oil paint, creating works that reference flesh and the figure even while the forms remain amorphous and minimal. My work is a way for me to question the meaning of material and spiritual transformation.

The thesis exhibit installed at VCU's Anderson Gallery was carried out using still imagery (a photograph), moving imagery (recorded video, live video), constructed objects and a delineated space. It was an experiment dealing with how one comes to know the world by virtue of one's physical activity within it. It was most importantly a work that required the viewer's participation in order to become "complete".

Memory is like afternoon light penetrating the windows of a fast moving car. The light coming through the trees creates images, reveals objects and faces, and introduces fluctuating sensations of warmth and coolness. Sometimes these images appear in logical sequences and at other times they are fleeting, surreal, and ambiguous. While memories are often presented linearly as fact, in actuality our stories only grasp at the truth. They are fragmented, imagined, and rearranged. By examining the intersection of reality and imagination in memories we see retelling as an act of creativity.

This body of work represents a celebration and pursuit of realizing an alternative language, one capable of expressing internal conflict through process and response to external typographic form and content.

I imagined a world where designing is projecting and where the entire design field is called projection. My research into what it means to be a projector culminates in a participatory creative project that embodies concepts of projection taken from a range of disparate subjects.

This thesis investigates the blurring of interior and exterior spaces involving indoor farmer’s market design. The goal of the work is to retain the vibrancy and energy of an outdoor market, while providing access to fresh food, produce, and social gathering year round in an indoor setting.