Reality estranges as an encumbrance, a cage that traps with its clipped wings, layered veils, and stiff blankets. This hold subsists as an immovable vessel potted but never earthboundmounted in a strained compartment, like jars with tight lids, lacking: in air, in breath, in imaginary attributes. Finally, with a last breath, an emergence blooms upon that which contextualizes momentary reality or rather that which defines a metaphorical escape from actuality. My singular endeavor is to escape. My momentary escape is found in the illusory. My illusion is a perception of reality and with this perception I find my singular endeavor... escape. With this work, I want to shift the ever-changing, kaleidoscope imagery of what is seen and what was seen in which our initial perception reads differently when we fit together varying fragments of a photograph. In doing so we look for not what is reality, but that which we have been primed to look for something false. Surrounded by enigmatic narratives, the works reveals two sides of peripeteia moments. Interrupting these works as fictions or to create a notion of fantasy that is read as purely theater exposes that escape is inevitable regardless of circumstance, but in which way we meet with escape is veiled in darkness. May all those who proceed ahead become a player in the works of their own accord

The holy text of Islam, the Quran, frequently refers to wine both praising and condemning the substance. Within the confines of earth, wine is prohibited because of its intoxicating nature. Believers who imbibe wine reaching an inebriated state separate themselves from God by failing to heed his law. However, for those believers righteous enough to enter the ideal, pastoral, paradisiacal afterlife, wine is not only permitted, but a great reward from Allah. In Paradise, the righteous will lounge on soft, supple couches, and will be served copious amounts of wine from goblets of silver and glass by beautiful, immortal youths. This description of Paradise provides an image of pleasures not typically afforded to believers of a religion that developed in an arid desert region. Both the religious and the secular realms of early Islamic art thus explore the act of wine drinking and the pleasures of Paradise. Religious Islamic art conveys the notion of Paradise as a means to attract converts to Islam who otherwise live in less than pleasurable conditions. Following an aniconic style, Islams religious art illustrates the verses of the Quran, providing a visual image to believers of the fertile garden, promised by God awaiting them in the afterlife. The secular realm of Islamic art also employs iconography referring to paradise, but does so by adopting and adapting themes of banqueting and luxury developed in early civilizations of the Near East by the ruling and elite classes as a means to demonstrate power and privilege. Through an analysis and comparison of pre-Islamic art of the Near East, as well as both the religious and secular realms of early Islamic art, this thesis explores the ways The Umayyad Caliphate employed an ancient iconography in order to secure the caliphs reign as successor to the previous empires of the Near East.

Co-ward: Records of a Fugitive Heart is a collection of objects that are themselves collections of events both internal and external. Each object, hand-made and/or un-made, is a record of a moment of vulnerability, in regards to moving away from, or towards, another.

Truss Damage examines negative cultural restrictions are imposed on family structures. It is an exploration of experimental and interactive narratives formed within virtual and real spaces. My research and implementation includes creating multisensory experiences through immersive technologies. With the use of devices such as Microsoft's Kinect controller, large LCD panels, and framed digital prints I am to bringing forth fragments of my past in order to create an interactive experience through movement and discovery of symbolic features.

The works in the Intimate Immensities series of landscape paintings function as aporia, or irresolvable contradictions. Using two aspects of Charles Sanders Peirces semiotic designations of the sign: the icon and index, these paintings function as both iconographic representations of mankinds spiritual connection with nature and indexical relics of the creative process as ritual. The foundational view out of which the work emerges is grounded in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. This thesis correlates Vajrayana Buddhism, ritual and the creative process, by explaining the parallels between ritual and the cognition that occurs during the creative process. To do this, the discussion uses the three-stages of ritual as theorized by Arnold Van Gennep: separation, margin and aggregation, Victor Turners terms: structure, anti-structure and liminal and the research into the creative process by educator and Ph.D, Nicole M. Gnedza. By fluctuating between the two ontological states of index and icon, the work resists stasis, however by representing a spiritual theme via both these means the work forms a cohesive whole.

My goal is to catch the moment in my paintings, whether it is an event from my busy everyday life or a slow formal arrangement of objects, that studies composition, light, color and movement. The drastic change in my life, traveling from Bangladesh to the United States, inspired me to render important small, quiet, little moments of my daily life by painting them. The intimacy of this connection is very important to me.

​Previous research into the art of Jeremiah Theus has often left much to be desired. A common choice of historians is to discuss how he differs from artists of his time, or discuss him solely in the context of other artists. However, it is important to study Theus within his own framework. A study of his particular location, time period, family history, the subjects he elected to portray and the way he chose to portray them all help in understanding and recognizing what makes Theus unique as an artist. This thesis aims not only to address the research undertaken by previous scholars but also strives to approach the artist from a more subjective direction. Hopefully, this will discourage future scholars from rapidly attributing the primitive works of eighteenth century Charleston to Theus and from unjustly assuming more skillful works as being too advanced to belong to his oeuvre.

Our lives are in a constant state of change, from the most intimate scale physically and emotionally to the world surrounding us externally. The relationships we build with ourselves, others, and the world surrounding us are important structures we carry with us throughout life. Momentary Eddies is a visual poem about the interconnectedness of our inner and outer landscapes. I have created a hauntingly dreamlike space that explores a landscape of emotions that are an entangled part of personal intimate relationships and how the emotional and physical topographies of these relationships connect to the environment surrounding us. These paper sculptures and layered sounds represent a personal narrative, which illustrates the tender beauty of vulnerability and the ephemerality of everything.

This is only Temporary examines my personal history of homes as reimagined spaces. The series of prints in the exhibition depicts reconstructed memories of houses. These visual narratives give context to the installation constructed from handmade paper and raw materials. The framework is reminiscent of housing plans that converge into a labyrinth. Participants actively engage the space, navigating the confined structure. A playful nature runs throughout the prints and installation reflecting upon reinterpreted memories within transitional spaces.

A Crow and A Hanger is a body of work that explores and illustrates the nature of life and death through the use of mixed-media drawing and printmaking techniques. My intention for this work, and this thesis paper, is to explain my thought process and how the imagery came to be. For me it is not at all important for every viewer to fully understand each image and the thoughts that went into the body as a whole. I let the images and their titles lead the viewer in a general direction and allow for their personal history and biases to fill in the gaps. That being stated, the work for me is a kind of catharsis and coming of age tale. It is a metaphor for my acceptance and interpretation of our place in the cosmic scene. I sum up my thoughts with the affirmation that: You are potentialyou are ephemeralyou are permanent.