The procedures taken in designing and constructing the costumes for Western Kentucky University’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was presented on November 13-19, 1979, were examined in retrospect to (1) the approach (2) the process and construction and (3) the evaluation. In establishing an approach for the production, considerations presented were title implications, thematic concept, historical periods, character sources, and the director’s notes. Solutions arrived at comprised a style suggestion, design/plot emphasis, color organization, texture contrasts, and line direction. In developing the design process and construction procedures, steps outlined were the preparations prior to designing, the organization prior to construction, the construction period, the dress parades and dress rehearsals. In strengthening the project as a learning experience an evaluation was determined that the costume design for the production was a success in that careful analysis was drawn from the script, communication was constant between designers and director, conscious control was exerted over the design elements, organizational procedure was taken to insure efficiency and the construction work was completed on time. Although deliberation was heeded, weaknesses were found in several individual designs and some color organizations. Still, the design as a whole was successful in that the style was consistent, the mood was appropriate and the ensemble was apparent.

One of the most prominent traditions associated with the Southern Appalachians is the art of weaving. Extensive research has focused on the history of Appalachian weaving, but there is little on the current weaving community. Today, the region still serves as an axis for weaving, and many practicing weavers, weaving instructors, and learning institutions can be found in Southern Appalachia. The core of this study is the interviews with ten weavers that reside and practice their work in Appalachia. Using concept coding, the transcripts of the interviews led to the development of four major themes that highlight the weavers’ discovery of their weaving passion, what continues to be a source of motivation for weaving, how today’s weavers use weaving as a source of income, and how weaving continues to be deeply connected to Southern Appalachia’s art and craft making traditions.

As the world becomes increasingly aware of the need to better care for the environment, innovative business models are helping to counter the damage of the fast fashion system - a phenomenon in the fashion industry whereby production processes are expedited in order to get new trends to the market as quickly and cheaply as possible. Designing products with a focus on their renewability can shift the product-consumer relationship. The closed loop concept of a “circular economy” is emerging as a viable and promising solution to the current linear business model. This study explores the possibilities of a more mindful approach to systems of production and consumption through material explorations using plastic from water bottles, paper from old newspaper and magazines, and fabric leftovers from pattern making within a circular economy. It considers the generative and renewable approaches in redefining how fashion engages with the components and raw materials of the industry. The research demonstrates a circular approach to the production of hospitality accessories in an effort to develop new intersections between products, materials, and consumers. The accessories are designed using discarded, reformulated denim–an abundant and underutilized byproduct of the fashion industry­–to reduce waste that currently occurs every time hotel chains and airlines produce disposable giveaway products from new materials.

Fashion embodies what is accepted and valued in a given culture or society and empowers individuals by building self-confidence, enabling them to express themselves authentically through their bodies and garments. The gender binary, perpetuated by the mainstream fashion industry, marginalizes individuals who do not conform to it. In Rebelution 17, I utilize clothing design and photography to empower and liberate individuals who do not conform to the standards of beauty in regards to gender identity and acceptability. The finished works are featured in a Lookbook – a digital and physical collection of photographs used to market fashion – designed to promote awareness of gender-neutral fashion and deconstruct industry norms. Rebelution 17 can be viewed online at www.francescainocentes.com.

Artist Statement The organic patterns all around me are what intrigues and inspires my textile, glass, and painting compositions. I find beauty within the natural growth patterns of things both large and small. My work references the reverberated growth processes in living things from the macroscopic observation of a plant to the microscopic viewpoint of its cells. Like the beauty found within these organic configurations, my process begins with creating serendipitous marks with a reference to natural patterns. Then, I intuitively respond to what I see in front of me. As I work, I use repetitious lines and shapes and a vibrant, non-naturalistic color palette. My choices of colors are personally motivated, and the combinations and manipulations are intuitive. Pattern and color are both visual languages that affect individuals differently. While my use of both is in response to my own experiences, my works allow the viewer to respond and connect in their own way.

The production and marketing of baskets in the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky from 1880 to the present is observed in light of the cultural, technical, aesthetic, ad traditional aspects involved. The process of making a white oak ribbed basket is documented, as well as the technical and aesthetic variables from which the basket maker renders his product. The changing role of social organization and communication in the production and marketing of a traditional craft objects is also considered.

The artist discusses the work in DollHouse, her Master of Fine Arts exhibition on display at Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, Tennessee from January 25 to February 5, 2016. The exhibition was an installation consisting of five sets, each containing furniture - both 2D and 3D - and a mask with instructions relating to a room found within a dollhouse. The sets and supporting thesis explore the ideas of social norms, feminism, and identity, and how submission to ideologies can create emptiness, while engagement can prompt social change. Topics include the process and evolution of the work and the artists who influenced it, ideas of identity and society, and the impacts of social norms on young women’s lives. Included is a catalogue of the exhibition.

This thesis is in support of the exhibition entitled ES-SEN-TIAL on display in Tipton Gallery located in Downtown Johnson City from February 27, 2017 to March 10, 2017. The exhibition is a presentation in fiber medium of the human impact on the landscape, specifically using the extractive industry of coal mining as example. This is accomplished through the use of digital imagery printed on textiles, hand and machine embroidery, and surface design techniques of dyeing and layering. This body of work reflects the artist’s interest in art activism and the utilization of photography, fiber arts, ideas and techniques, as creative process to formally explore the landscape.

As I encounter life during a global pandemic, caused by a virus that has us all homebound, I continue my own struggle with a different virus that keeps me not only homebound, but bed bound as well. In this thesis project, I make my way around and through the questions of chronic illness, self-worth, productivity and a changing relationship to time that arise in this dual viral experience - situating the personal within a larger social/political context.

In the Adams Collection at the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, Tillamook, Oregon, there are 29 baskets that were probably made between 1880 and 1940. They are mostly of raffia, are somewhat faded from their original, bright, commercial colors, and are generally quite small. Despite the fact that these baskets are well-documented and were made by Tillamook women, they are the sort that have been overlooked by anthropologists and by collectors because of their non-"traditional" appearance. In order to determine what relationship these baskets have to Tillamook basketry made earlier, I analyzed them and 39 Tillamook baskets from four other museum collections for features of structural and.decorative techniques, shape, size, and stitch qualities, and noted the.materials used.