Absence is the thesis exhibition resulting from the culmination of my three years in the graduate program. In this documentation, I outline historical and contextual influences that shape my ceramic practice. I specify that my work is centered on my life and describe how my work has evolved since I first started in the program. In the process I have gathered source material and have explored key points in the theory and history of Minimalism. As I developed the work, I was able to discuss how my work applied to these sources, and where it differed. I ended with introspective installation work that paralleled the themes I was working with at the start of my graduate experience that shows my evolution from being a child continually bounced around from one family member to another, to being the confidant of my mother and holding her darkest secrets, to feeling alone and unloved, to finally beginning to heal and accept who I am. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection