Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a tourist town. I was born and raised in this area, and am currently employed at a ceramics shop in the historic Arts and Crafts Community. Due to this job, I have decided to research the importance of the town and crafts area. In this paper, I will present an overview of the history of the town and its art community, and also present an inside look at life and business in a tourist town. Although the Arts and Crafts Community has grown to be a tourist attraction, its roots still lie in the traditional handmade trades, and its artisans attempt to balance the integrity of their crafts with modern demand and economic realities.

Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, No Place Like It, held at Tipton Street Gallery, 126 Spring Street, Downtown Johnson City, TN, from April 2nd to April 6th. The show exhibit consists largely of drawings mostly done in graphite or charcoal, an installation piece, a quilt and found objects completed between the summer of 2010 and spring of 2012. The work uses family photos and Jackalopes to show the relationship to the artist as well as ideas about family, isolation, and identity.

Everybody lies. Everybody. The fact that everyone lies, however, is by no means a judgment; it is a good thing, a necessary thing. As far as I am concerned lying is the very foundation of our society. Nobody in the world tells the truth all the time, not because they are trying to be malevolently deceitful, of course, but out of necessity. Like the old adage says, the truth hurts. That is, in essence, the very heart of this body of work. Everyone tries so hard to not only convince others that the truth is a moral imperative, but also to convince themselves. Earth survives because it has an atmosphere;Mars hasnothing standing between it and the full of force of the Sun. A world full of truth is like life on Mars: much too harsh to survive. Were no one to ever lie again (conditioned as we are to not only ignore, but also to accept and expectthe small falsehoods that surround us at all times), the sheer force of that unbridled honesty would tear the very fabric of society apart. We have to staple our rose-colored glasses on so that the world goes down a little smoother.We lie to support modern society's obsession with things. We lie to support our reality because the lie is our reality. Deceit has become true and truth as been relegated to the world of fiction. People prefer it that way and I cannot say I blame them.

A written thesis about an exhibition of portraits. The portraits and paper discuss my relationships with the subjects and the psychological implications of being subjected to the eye of an artist.

This paper concerns operatic performance from an acting perspective utilizing the works of Constantin Stanislavsky from my personal experiences in the Opera Workshop course offered in Fall of 2011.

Everyday we find ourselves making hundreds of decisions, often without noticing the relevance of even the most miniscule choice that can grow and form into a life altering state of mind. The human brain is the most elaborately complex structure in existence, enabling us to be able to function and comprehend our surroundings. With complexity, also comes malfunctions, which will inevitably occur occasionally ranging in a wide variety of defects from mental illnesses, to super genius abilities. What a certain individual may see as reality, may be completely opposite of the reality you or I see. This poses the question, who decides which reality is true? This paper contains documentation of my research and process through writing and performing an original short film confronting observations that we all experience in our daily lives in the form of a very extreme circumstance that will attempt to force a new way of thinking about what ties us all together as a species, despite our many unique and diverse perceptions. "Metamorphosis" was shown November 30th, 2012 as a short film. To coincide with the film, a promotional website was made to accompany the piece, as well as graphics.

Empathy, defined as the capacity to observe the feelings of another person and to respond with care and concern for that other person, is a very important quality of successful people (Cotton, 2000). However, there is very little research on the development of empathy in children, with a definite gap in research on the development of empathy in children from 24 to 48 months of age. The characteristic of empathy can be very difficult for young children to portray because of their tendency to be egocentric and their difficulty in recognizing the feelings of others. This study attempts to close the research gap. It is based on prior research indicating that movement in synchrony with music could encourage children, 24 to 36 months, to demonstrate empathetic behavior. The study included seven participants between the ages of 24-36 months. Field notes, as well as videotapes, captured the data. Before the study took place, teachers rated each child’s level of empathy in the classroom. In the first part of the study the children were bounced to the beat of the music and divided into two groups. In the synchronous group the principal investigator would stand in front of the child and bounce synchronously with the child. In the Asynchronous group the principal investigator would bounce asynchronously to the child in random unpredictable beats. The principal investigator would then complete a task of drawing a picture with each child. The principal investigator would then drop the crayon and act as if she were unable to reach it to see if the child would take action to help retrieve the crayon. The second part of the study involved a group activity, led by the principal investigator, in which children moved synchronously to music, using child safe rhythm sticks. The principal investigator would then drop her stick and act as if she was unable to reach it. In both parts of the study children were observed to see if they demonstrated any type of empathetic behavior towards the other children participating or towards the researcher. Results indicate that children who demonstrated empathetic or helping behaviors were originally part of the synchronous group. These results suggest that moving synchronously to music can encourage children to demonstrate empathetic behavior as well as create a connection between the participants. With this knowledge teachers will be able to create more effective classrooms where development of empathy is fostered.

A documentation of the rehearsal process of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, written by the actor playing Jerry and attempting to use the Stella Adler technique of acting.

The Beauty of Stage Managing: Being a Catalyst for the Theatrical Arts analyzes the art and craft of stage management. My experiences as a theatre student at East Tennessee State University from 2009-2012, culminated in my final senior capstone as the stage manager for the ETSU Division of Theatre and Dance production of Beautiful Bodies by Laura Shaine Cunningham (performed October 18-21 2012 at the Bud Frank Theatre). In addition, the following research of the history and development of stage management and its modern practices created a better understanding of the artistic field. Both in theory and in practice, I explored the multitude of organizational and artistic responsibilities that are in the custody of the stage manager.

My work began with an exploration of paralysis. Before starting this project, the subject of immobility was already a source of aversion and discomfort to me. At one point in my life I discovered that it was possible for one’s body to ossify and become completely immobile. This disease is called Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, it is extremely rare, but still caused me many nightmares as a child. Because being trapped, petrified, or immobile had become a source of distress and obsession during my life, and a few prior projects had explored this concept, I decided to further investigate the topic.