1 / Natalie McCann

The purposes of this thesis are probing into the change of Chinese Oil Painting in art market. By means of this study, we will able to understand the development processes of the art markets in China, on the other hand, to gather the data from the auction market of different age artists and analysis them. Furthermore, it¡¦s the way to clarify how strong the art market in China is, or just the strategy to sensationalize the whole market to get high attention. But, it¡¦s obvious to find out that the environment affects the artists¡¦ creation a lot, but the works in the art market will go by chance. Therefore, to conclude that the Chinese art market is immature because the position of Chinese oil paintings is not fixed by Chinese government, Chinese artists and Chinese art market, but the art market in the world. Consequently, the Chinese art market needs to connect with the international art market.

My paintings are inspired by the places I have seen, as well as the people God has placed in my path. The individuals in my portraits are some of the people with whom I have shared a special bond. Upon reflection, they have been instrumental in deepening my faith. Their love, prayers, support, and deep questioning of my beliefs have enhanced my understanding of God and helped to strengthen my relationship with Him. 1 am very thankful for the ability to paint their portraits as an expression of my gratitude and love. God has also blessed me with opportunities to travel and experience His creation in different areas of the world. One moment I felt closest to Him was in Alaska as I stood awestruck at the bottom of a glacier-coated mountain, without a manmade object in sight. The vastness and icy glow of the mountain surrounded by lush greenery filled me with a sense of God's presence. In my landscape paintings, I attempt to capture these moments on canvas. I can never quite attain the original beauty of the landscape but I use vibrant colors in an attempt to recreate the majestic nature of God's creation, the original master artist.

My artwork is fortified by three essential elements, vibrant color, luminous light, and repeated patterns found in nature. These elements unify my oil paintings and computer generated artwork and form a substructure that serves to magnify the unique concord found in nature.

The influential philosophers Edmund Burke and Emmanuel Kant understand the sublime as events and objects that cause an emotional reaction so magnificent that the intellect fails to comprehend it. It is thus deeply felt and experienced but remains undefined and non-understood. Searching for the Sublime is a suite of paintings that seek to respond to these definitions of the sublime. Together they address and evoke themes of mystery, fear, power, and the unknowable through the medium of painting.

MFA Thesis paper by Kyungho Joshua Choi

MFA Thesis paper by Kyungho Joshua Choi

According to the Mirriam-Webster online dictionary, “grotesque” is defined as “a style of decorative art characterized by fanciful or fantastic human and animal forms often interwoven with foliage or similar figures that may distort the natural into absurdity, ugliness, or caricature.” Originating from the Old Italian grottesca, cave painting, feminine of grottesco of a cave, from the time of its conception, the grotesque has been inexorably linked to art and the female. The work of other female artists that explore themes of the feminine grotesque are discussed, including Katheryn Wakeman, Jenny Saville, and Maria Lassnig. In my current work, I have been creating oil paintings of macro images of my own body to construct a fragmented and magnified, borderless, grotesque view of the body. The images focus on the mouth, due to its complicated nature as both internal and external, hidden and in plain sight, as well as due to connotations with speech, ingestion, and sexuality. The work walks a fine line between aesthetically pleasing while also commanding an uncomfortably visceral, fleshy quality. While the works are somewhat ambiguous and allow for various readings, they also allude to larger issues of sexism. The use of magnification and fragmentation references the insufficient representation of the female body both art historically —with the beautiful female nude painted by the male artist—as well as contemporarily in an overly-Photoshopped society. The visceral feeling of disgust should allow viewers to commune with their own bodies’ psychophysiological reactions and question the politics of how beauty standards are established as well as whether beauty is a valuable concept when judging the female form.

For my BFA Capstone exhibition Preying For a Miracle I analyzed the Biblical book of Job found in the Old Testament in relation to my own life. My interest in the Book of Job stems from a human desire to understand suffering, especially suffering that is unprovoked. At the beginning of the book of Job, Job is described as “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”. (Job 1:1) As the first chapter of the book progresses, Satan comes to God and presents a wager. Satan insinuates that Job is only faithful to God because God has “put a hedge around him”. (Job 1:9) Satan proposes that he can make Job curse God’s name if he removes the abundant blessings he has received. God accepts this wager and declares that as long as Job’s life is spared Satan can do with him as he wants, which begins a series of brutal trials. I found myself asking how can such violence and human suffering be justified?

A group of oil paintings completed in partial requirement of my MFA degree is discussed. The paintings are on wood panels and are the result of a combination of old master techniques of under-painting and glazing and more contemporary approaches to the painting process. Each painting represents a particular concept or event from Mormon theology; whereas, the pictorial structure is inspired by Medieval manuscript painting. Thus, this body of work is a synthesis between two worldviews existing centuries apart, yet sharing certain core values and beliefs.