Version Territory explores my interest in the construction site as a metaphor for creative endeavor. Working with printed and painted imagery as well as three-dimensional objects, I bring pieces in various states of flux together in an exhibition, which--reflecting the theme of variation--also changes daily.

STRIPPED is a series of paintings in which figurative elements are reduced to a collection of fine lines suggesting body parts, composed on a surface of raw, unprimed wood. The untreated wood is akin to exposed skin. This allusion, along with the open, delicate web of line that offer both abstract and figural shapes, evokes a sense of the vulnerable. The works are literally and metaphorically vulnerable through the context of installation and the variety of readings they provoke.

Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France from 1774-1792, had a tumultuous relationship with her subjects throughout her reign. Early criticism stemmed from her Austrian origins, and the French public gradually transformed her into a monstrous character whose German behavior and lack of morals brought ruin to the court of Versailles. This view was confirmed for the public upon viewing certain paintings of the queen, such as Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun's "La Reine en gaulle" of 1783. Paintings such as these were interpreted by the French as a blatant show of disrespect for French customs and traditions on the part of Marie-Antoinette. To combat the vicious rumors and negative publicity that surrounded her, Marie-Antoinette actively commissioned portraits that presented an image of her as a good queen and mother. This paper is an attempt to explain and understand the effect portraiture had on the queen's reputation, and an examination of how she tried to use portraits to create a positive image. Ultimately, I will highlight the importance of Vigée-Lebrun's "Marie-Antoinette 'en robe de velours bleu'" as one of the queen's last portrait commissions meant to have a significant impact on her reputation.

As a Latin American artist living and working in Paris, Cristóbal Rojas (1858-1890) stood at the crossroads of many paths. His early artistic formation in Venezuela and his training at the Académie Julian in Paris instilled in him the academic artistic style visible in the works he submitted to the Salon between 1883 and 1890. However, it is not in his Salon works but rather in the paintings he did for himself that Rojas's significance and contribution to the history of art can be found. The increasingly Modernist works he painted for his personal artistic concerns reveal Rojas's valuable compromise between academicism and Modernism as well as his place as one of the first Latin American Modernist artists.

The exhibition Multiple Barter: The house has fallen, evolved from my consideration of the effects of globalization, global conflict, and the absolute commoditization of human activities. One very important characteristic of my materials is their universality; a universality that could be understood in varying contexts. Multiples and the barter system (exchange) are two very important activities by which every economy operates, activities that are followed by the patterns and structures of trades formed by the interaction and negotiations (or interactive negotiations) of individuals and networks. One cannot underestimate the principles of good trading that can only be established with an emphasis on respect for other human beings. Everything in the world finds its value through barter. Anything and everything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, which makes barter very subjective, despite the influence of supply and demand. The word exchange has been in use since the middle of the fifteenth-century, during the period when the majority of populations on both sides of the Atlantic were subsistence farmers, pre-industrial and pre-capitalist economies just before many colonies in Europe started building slave-dependent economies.

My work, for the last two years, was largely based on manipulation and interventions of everyday commodities, objets trouvés based on certain specific urban situations. These interactions lead to a series of works that to a certain extent can be called site-specific or site-referential and are manifested in video and the format of installation. From a schematic perspective there is a methodological pattern in my work that is based on the combination of two quasi-mundane entities strategically manipulated; their interaction creates a new meaning that is multivalent and often elusive.

During the twentieth century, China experienced devastating political and social change. Civil war, conflict with neighboring territories, shifting governmental policies under a dictatorship, and extreme levels of censorship, all contributed to the framework of China's cultural legacy. These cataclysmic changes affected generations of Chinese people and virtually all aspects of Chinese life, including the field of fine arts. This essay examines Chinese artist Cai-Guo Qiang and how the political, social, and cultural contexts of China during the Cold War era shaped his later work. Specifically, I will analyze his position as a Chinese artist who grew up under the constant fear of nuclear attack following World War II, as well as the tensions between Mainland China and Taiwan, and the rise and fall of Mao Zedong. By focusing on the works executed by Cai Guo-Qiang after moving to New York in 1995, where the contemporary Asian art scene flourished, I can construct a more complete assessment of how the artist addressed his complicated cultural heritage through an explosive range of artistic media.

Song of Solomon is a cantata in six movements set to texts from the book, Song of Solomon, from the King James Version of the Bible. Passages are selected from chapters one, two, four, five, seven, and eight and ordered in a manner to facilitate a literary and musical flow. The cantata follows the romantic journey of two young lovers, and the story is an exploration and celebration of the beauty and delight they find in each other. The instrumentation features soprano and baritone solos accompanied by an ensemble of five wind instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) and four string instruments (two violins, viola and cello).

Midnight Sketches is a set of pieces for small orchestra. Each sketch stands alone as a journey through a different type of dream. Rather than a specific program for each movement, a general idea is suggested to the listener who then is free to embark on his own aural journey through dreamlike textures and soundscapes. The two movements presented here each capture positive, "happy" dreams. The first movement, "Rêverie," French for "daydream," illustrates a Romantic, pastoral, and almost stereotypical "dream." Much of the piece was composed using Lydian scales and extended tertian harmonies. It begins with a simple harp and flute lullaby and blossoms into sweeping, full textures with lush Romantic harmonies. The lullaby returns at the end. The second movement, "Tourner," French for "to turn," illustrates a dream in which the environment seems to be spinning around the dreamer. He then enters into a peaceful, magical space, represented by a tonal, chorale-like middle section. The spinning motion returns at the end, only at a slower tempo, bringing the dreamer back down to earth.

This thesis examines the posters evolution from an exterior, public phenomenon to an interior and private art form in 1890s Paris. In examining this development, I undertake an analysis of the poster designs of Jules Chéret and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I also discuss two separate kinds of interiorization related to the posters transformation from a type of public advertisement to an interiorized and privatized form of wall art. The first form of interiorization is the literal, physical placement of the poster on the walls of the interior of homes and popular entertainment venues to serve as decoration. Jules Chérets series of four panels executed in 1891Dance, Music, Pantomime, and Comedywhich was installed in the interior of Montmartres famous cabaret, Le Chat Noir, best exemplifies the posters physical interiorization. The second form of interiorization concerns the style of such posters, which suggests a certain degree of psychological interiority, or in the words of Nicholas Watkins, a protective intimism. A component of the discussion of psychological interiority involves examining how Chéret and Toulouse-Lautrec treat the direct representation of interior space within posters and lithographs. An understanding of these two forms of interiorization in the work of these two artists ultimately becomes clear through the analysis of the style and subject matter of specific images and the cultural context in which they emerged.