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.

My art is a means for investigating the passage of time, the decay of physical things, and the truth of mortality. I explore these concepts through process-oriented sculptures that emphasize ritual and material. The process is communicated with the creation of relics, often existing as drawings or the remains of degenerated sculptures. These relics bear witness to the process. I focus on themes of temporal change and death because they remain central to our metaphysical and physical existence. I see a diminished reverence for the power of death in our culture, and through my work I aim to pay homage to death while offering viewers an experience of “being present,” a deeper awareness of our existence in time. The mindfulness I speak of is an awareness of life’s temporal nature. My intention is to evoke an awareness of mortality giving rise to feelings of gratitude and humility.

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.

Quotations like the Sharpest Claws describes a multimedia installation composed of paintings and sound that explores the theory of cognitive dissonance, a controversial psychological model that attempts to explain how we deal with inconsistency in incompatible beliefs. Imagination is given primacy as a source for truth-seeking and world-building. The uncanny and surreal are used as entry points into this topic. The title is derived from a description of Eileen Myles’ poetry I once read in an anonymous review. Their writing was described as beyond poetry in a way that it could only be described as such when surrounded by “quotations like the sharpest claws.” This phrase has since stuck with me as a way to describe my own work, dealing with “truth,” “metaphor,” and “cognition”, although in my case these claws are indicative of doubt surrounding the aforementioned subjects.

Humor has long been an effective way to engage difficult sociopolitical topics in a way that avoids polemical confrontation and provides opportunity for pleasure, catharsis and self-knowledge. In the context of today’s polarized politics and protest, creative satirical performance that deploys “symbolic tinkering” can provide a “comic frame of reference” that, according to Kenneth Burke, more effectively conveys its message while providing reflexive insight. The satirical Church of the SubGenius naturally practices this rhetorical frame in their multimedia creations. Using the lens of Burke’s Attitudes Toward History, this essay is an analysis of SubGenius rhetoric with a focus on their Hour of Slack live radio program and the book Revelation X to provide an informative example of Burke’s comic frame applied, and clarify the nature of its utility by exploring the rhetorical impact of the Church of the SubGenius and the relevance of its “comic corrective.” Politically cynical, SubGenii are nevertheless keen cultural critics whose sophisticated use of a complex comic rhetoric warrants more serious attention.

Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) are often secluded from society, as the condition is perceived to be a defect. These children constantly fidget, move, lose track of time, and forget to complete tasks, leading them to struggle within existing social environments. Additionally, in Qatar there is a need to educate society about ADHD. This research explores wearable solutions that alter behaviors through physical interactions and sensory engagements. In response to the challenges faced by ADHD, Qatari traditional attire has been customized to support children with time management, and communication between child, parent, and society. Additionally, these wearables challenge Qatari perspectives surrounding existing health conditions in Qatar. Design outcomes consists of clothing elements, driven and shaped by the experiences of ADHD children, their physical behavior, their senses like touch, smell and sight. It addresses the daily conduct of the ADHD child, and the relationship of the child and parent. By challenging existing norms and analyzing the Qatari traditional clothing (the Thobe, the Abaya and the Prayer Bead), design outcomes have been realized by experimenting and playing with materials, prototyping and 3D printing on fabric. Existing functions of zippers, pockets, beads, cuffs and technical construction of the outfit have been redesigned and reconstructed.

Mass production and assembly lines are yesterday’s manufacturing methods. They have exhausted Earth’s resources and limited the possibilities of design in terms of both form and material, prompting designers to search for new processes. A new generation of making includes biomimicry-inspired technologies such as 3D printing and parametric simulation, which have transformed the production paradigm. Utilizing nature as industry, this thesis explores the possibility of “growing” designed objects by employing nature’s own processes and resources. It integrates bio materials, generative design and additive manufacturing to produce objects for a post-industrial world. The project outcomes employ natural minerals, crystallization and 3D printing to develop new forms of making, proposing a new suite of tools for designers.

This article is the first of a series exploring domination culture through the ways narrative has been indoctrinated as reality and weaponized as a holding cell for captives. Within this exploration, the narrative of domination is placed in relation to higher dimensional realms of the unknown; this being the before and after of domination culture. This positioning will allow for the reality of a simultaneous existence within the labyrinth of domination and a higher dimensional unknown to be framed. Within this series of articles, I question the roll of the rogue characters shamanistic agents of resisting domination, the fear of dark matter as a sub-narrative of domination, the power of submitting to the limits of human perception and the way perceived darkness can help unveil the structure of the narrative of domination. This article will begin to define this narrative and introduce the poetic freedom, of what lies beyond human perception.

This thesis explores the Churchill Weavers stereocards housed at the Kentucky Historical Society and Berea College based on visual analysis. By examining the stereocards as advertisements and comparing them to a series of short films created by the company, I will discuss how the Churchill Weavers created a brand that emphasized both an image of traditional American rural production and modern urban consumption. I will further discuss how the marketing strategies used by the Churchill Weavers exemplify a larger trend in American advertising in the years following World War Two.

This paper will explore how portrayals of male violence against female characters in film and television have affected the way in which women navigate through society. Images of exploitation, degradation, and violence towards females are constantly presented in television and film, creating an over saturation in the media market and fostering a sense of normalcy the extremely problematic issue of violence. Often, these images are internalized by women to the extent that their view the men around them becomes as distorted as the men who view them as nothing more than sex object. Men become their source of fear and what was carried out on television becomes an accepted possibility and expectation in reality, regardless of whether these men actually pose of threat. Through examining television shows and news broadcasts, the paper reveals how media serves to perpetuate traditional notions of gender, power, and assault created in American society and offers solutions to rework the traditional systems or thought.