Thesis (M.A.)--Stony Brook University, 2008. / This official electronic copy is part of the DSpace Stony Brook theses & dissertations collection maintained by the University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives on behalf of the Stony Brook Graduate School. It is stored in the SUNY Digital Institutional Repository and can be accessed through the website. Presented to the Stony Brook University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy; as recommended and accepted by the candidate's degree sponsor, the Dept. of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-39).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:19:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AleteaHM.pdf: 44607 bytes, checksum: 2b791ee3aa6ffc146dde04f165d1221c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-13 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study consists in a reflection on the work of artist Elaine Tedesco, focusing on the projection of images on dark spaces and sets of objects and installations. Whereas much of its production is linked to the city as the scene of action and source of creation, seeks to recognize the conceptual issues that emerge from the relationship between the artist's works and this space, what triggers the analysis of art as a possibility to dream and as a proposal for discussion about the body in urbanity. Deepening the problem of image that emerges from the works, it establishes a dialogue with the production of other artists who developed workrelated matter. Arising from this proposition, the city is conceived as a space both real and perceived as a field of dreams, and this combination makes it possible to relate the urban space with Arcádia / Este estudo consiste numa reflexão sobre a obra da artista Elaine Tedesco, tendo como foco as projeções de imagens sobre espaços sombrios e as séries de objetos e instalações. Considerando que grande parte de sua produção está vinculada à cidade como palco de ação e fonte de criação, procura-se reconhecer as questões conceituais que emergem da relação entre os trabalhos da artista e esse espaço, o que desencadeia a análise da arte como possibilidade onírica e como proposta de discussão sobre o corpo na urbanidade. Aprofundando a problemática da imagem que emerge das obras, estabelece-se uma interlocução com a produção de outros artistas que desenvolveram trabalhos relacionados ao assunto. Decorrente desta proposição, a cidade passa a ser concebida tanto como um espaço real e concreto como um campo de sonhos, sendo que esta articulação torna possível relacionar o espaço urbano com a Arcádia

A thesis report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Painting.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Philosophy Department, 2007. / Short stories. "A compilation of creative writing that utilizes life narrative to examine living with a physical disability."--Abstract.

This thesis provides a reading of Anita Rau Badami’s novels The Hero’s Walk and Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? The interpretive frame constructs a theory of affect to explore the human experience of beauty through a reading of Badami’s texts. This work’s approach to beauty is derived largely from Elaine Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just and from musings on beauty by Simone Weil. Following Weil, I understand beauty as the ascription of value or worth to various things, actions, or ideas, and I position beauty as an undergirding affective experience that is always present in the human encounter of the world. This thesis examines how Badami’s novels depict the ways in which a Weilian sense of beauty leads characters to develop affectual attachments to various ideologies and discourses represented in the diasporic landscape of the texts. Through a critical consideration of the depicted effects of such attachments on Badami’s characters’ lives, this study also locates potential instances of what Lauren Berlant calls cruel optimism. I contend that the novels often portray instances of cruel optimism to critique traditional practices and perspectives while ever working towards building their own pronouncement of what constitutes a more genuine, higher sense of the beautiful. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

As a woman whose career lifted off during the era of Abstract Expressionism, Elaine de Kooning is precariously positioned between her gender and her career. She began painting in the midst of a male-dominated movement and in later years continued to use very masculine themes in her art; however, her gender sets her apart from her mostly male colleagues during the Abstract Expressionist period. The mid-century expectation of machismo and masculinity shaped Elaine de Kooning’s art and career, and there is a tension within her art as she tried to fit the established (male) persona of the typical Abstract Expressionist artist while also maintaining a female identity. As the wife of Willem de Kooning, Elaine is most often discussed with respect to this relationship. Her name is infrequently mentioned in scholarship without reference to Willem, and her contribution to art history has only recently been studied in any length in Jane Bledsoe’s Elaine de Kooning (1992) and in a series of smaller gallery publications. Furthermore, Elaine has become recognized and respected, in some cases, more for her critical writings for Art News during the 1950s and 1960s than for her art. She was an artist turned art critic, and this crossover has further complicated the scholarly attention devoted to her. Elaine consistently revisited male-inspired subject matter: in her portraiture she painted predominantly male sitters; in her cave painting-inspired work she reflected a society of primitive male hunters; in her series of sports paintings she depicted male basketball and baseball players in dynamic postures; in her Bacchus series she investigated a male god and the vitality of the statue’s writhing male musculature; and in her bull and bison series she worked with the clichéd animalistic symbol of masculine strength and virility. These subjects, combined with the ejaculatory style of Abstract Expressionism’s loose brushwork and vibrant swirling colors, provide a unique contrast to the artist, herself, as a female personality. / Art History / Accompanied by three .doc Microsoft Word documents.

The Choral Music of Elaine Hagenberg explores the oeuvre of composer Elaine Hagenberg through a musicological, qualitative, and performance-based analysis of her compositional style that has led to her increasing acclaim. This study serves as the first primary source of scholarly output on her. Through an examination of her musical background as a pianist and choral educator, one can identify her principal sources of musical inspiration: text, nature, and her faith. Shaped by these experiences, her compositional philosophy encapsulates five elements of text, form, rhythm, melody, and harmony as she strives to produce singer-centric, authentic, and socially relevant compositions that unite people together. What begins as a consideration of her background and compositional process culminates in practical musical analysis and conducting and vocal considerations to aid future conductors in creating compelling performances of her works. The compositions discussed are As The Rain Hides The Stars (2015), O Love (2016), Song of Miriam (2019), My Companion (2019), and Alleluia (2020).

Confessions of a Forager is a chronicle of Lauren Hudgins's adventures and mistakes while searching and eating wild food, and a questioning her vegetarian morals. Readers visit organized foraging projects through the Wild Food Adventures of expert John Kallas, the Mushroom Gathering at Breitenbush hot springs, and the Portland Fruit Tree Project, which turns a wasted bounty into an opportunity for public nourishment. Memoir sections of the thesis examine how food-related habits are passed down from parent to child, exploring the family's foraging history through perspective of the author's father. It is also a consideration of the community and personal relationships formed over noncommercial, hand-harvested food.

This essay examines the healing miracles of Jesus as described by the Synoptic Gospels and posits that the appeal of the Synoptics over non-canonical texts can partially be found in the former’s focus on these physical healing miracles. The essay argues that the idea that one can be healed of physical pain through faith is a varied theme in the Synoptics and a strong motivator to bring an interest in early Christianity, especially during a time of persecution. Further, this essay considers Gnostic Gospels and their relative lack of healing miracles to expand upon a theory put forth by Elaine Pagels, namely that the early church declared Gnostic texts to be heretical in part because they did not cater to the basic needs of the people as the Synoptics did.

Engaging with both the materiality and visuality of the embroidered artworks by Marguerite Zorach and Elaine Reichek, this thesis analyzes the material acknowledgement, or lack thereof, of the embroidery medium in both the artists' own motivations and how the Museum of Modern Art represents and displays modern embroideries. Often perceived as old-fashioned, in both cultural and artistic frameworks there is at a times tremulous acceptance of the embroidery medium. Both Zorach and Reichek's embroideries are undoubtedly rooted in modernist ideas surrounding form, subject, and aesthetics. Expressed in thread, the concepts behind these artworks are closely stitched to the medium itself, enhanced by the textural and methodological process of embroidery. Despite this, the modes of display used by the MoMA exhibits portray a reluctance to fully embrace and acknowledge the importance of materiality in in the history of embroidery. Examining the inclusion of Zorach's The Circus in the 1938 Three Centuries of American Art exhibition alongside Reichek's 1999 solo exhibition Projects 67: Elaine Reichek displaying her When This You See… embroidery series, this thesis evaluates each artist's use of the medium and how the respective exhibitions framed the embroidered artworks. / Master of Arts / Embroidery, often perceived as a domestic or craft practice, faces cultural and artistic reception challenges when being used as a medium for modern art. Using Marguerite Zorach and Elaine Reichek's embroidered modern artworks, this thesis analyzes how the artists' motivations are translated through the Museum of Modern Art's curatorial and conceptual framework. For these two artists, the materiality, physical processes, and cultural history of the embroidery medium provide grounding contexts for their individual artistic production. This emphasizes that artistic motivation for the use of embroidery is inherently tied to the physical and contextual qualities of the medium, rather than being a simply coincidental choice of medium. Despite this, the MoMA, while not wholly ignoring the material qualities of embroidery and the intimate connection between artist, materiality, and process, does not fully acknowledge and exhibit these closely stitched connections. Analyzing how the MoMA displayed Zorach's The Circus in the 1938 and Reichek's When This You See… embroidery series in 1999, this thesis delves into the cultural forces informing the MoMA's exhibition framing of embroidery alongside how each artist's use of the medium.