Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, Section: A, page: 3594. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

The American Abstract Artists organization was the primary force behind the development and popularization of abstract art in America in the late thirties and early forties. The artists--including Rosalind Bengelsdorf, Ilya Bolotowsky, Byron Browne, Burgoyne Diller, Balcomb Greene, Carl Holty, Harry Holtzman, Ibram Lassaw, George McNeil, George Morris, Albert Swinden, and Vaclav Vylacil--developed a style of painting that stressed geometric abstraction based on the aesthetics of a European "purist" approach to painting, especially the Neoplasticism of Mondrian and the geometric compositions of Picasso. The period discussed spans roughly a decade: it opens with the earliest informal meetings of the group in 1936 and closes in 1947, when the advent of the "drip-style" painting of Jackson Pollock signals a major new direction in abstract art. / With the arrival of a large group of Surrealist French emigrants in New York in and around 1940 and the appearance of Abstract Expressionism, the works of the American Abstract Artists were quickly eclipsed. Historical opinion, until very recently, dismissed the works of American Abstract Artists as derivative and without historical importance vis-a-vis subsequent developments in American art. / Although one cannot dismiss the unique character of the inspiration which Surrealist art and theory brought to play upon the American vanguard beginning around 1940, the currently popular insistence on a definite schism between the American Abstract Artists and the Abstract Expressionist groups is not warranted. There are too many parallels which exist between the ideas and works of certain of the American Abstract Artists and the Abstract Expressionists. / The nature of the American Abstract Artists' vanguard, the roles of Hans Hofmann and John Graham in the development of the group, the American Abstract Artists' familiarity with psychological doctrines, and particulars of the group's aesthetic together constitute a continuum of interests between the American Abstract Artists and the Abstract Expressionists. The purpose of describing such a continuum is to reevaluate the prevailing views of thirties' geometric abstraction as essentially distinct in character from forties' expressive abstraction. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-08, Section: A, page: 2110. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 30-03, Section: A, page: 1090. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1968.

No Abstract.

The Montana Museum of Art & Culture (MMAC) exhibited the portraiture of Montana modernist painter Henry Meloy in July and August of 2007. As curatorial intern, I assisted in the mounting of this exhibition and researched the biography of and portraits created by Meloy. The professional paper describes the process of mounting the show from the acquisition of the permanent loan of the Meloy collection by the MMAC through exhibiting and and shipping the work. This description is supplemented with biographical information and critical assessment of the portraits, which show stylistic developments in visual arts in the United States between 1920 and 1950.

Gifford Pinchots aesthetic developed in childhood and combined the pictorial considerations of the Hudson River School with the use philosophy of early landscape architecture and the format of early western survey photographers. Pinchot and photography came of age during the American industrial revolution; at a time when medium and man seemed to encompass both art and science. Gifford Pinchot used photography to ask the questions what is the proper course? what is the appropriate plan of use?

This thesis explores the development in the pictorial representation of four important French royal mistresses. It looks at works depicting Agnès Sorel, mistress to Charles VII; Diane de Poitiers, mistress to Henri II; Gabrielle dEstrées, mistress to Henri IV; and Madame de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV. By placing the portrayals of these women within a historical context, it becomes apparent that there are links between the strength of the crown and the depictions of the mistresses. This thesis traces the development of the imagery associated with these women and demonstrates that as the crown became more and more powerful, the portraits of the kings mistresses became bolder and less disguised.

All individuals have an innate need to create and explore. They explore creativity through free and spontaneous play. This free play is essential in cognitive development. In organized youth sports children no longer have this opportunity to freely play. Athletics are regimented and restricted in ways that do not allow children to personally experience the sport at an intrinsic level. Young athletes are taught at an early age the significance of extrinsic rewards and motivators. Because of these extrinsic rewards young athletes lose their desire to explore the sport on a more intimate level. They perform robotically the skills and tasks set before for them. All individuality is lost in a world commanding conformity. In this process there are three stages that young athletes go through in losing their desire to play: deprival of pleasure, denial of inquiry, and deprivation of self. These stages are detrimental to the childs ability to deeply connect with athletics. The Loss of Play in Organized Youth Sports is increasing in a world filled with meticulous coaching methods. If we do not change the way childrens athletics are conducted, future generations will lose the personal relationship with sports in the future. The solution is to stop making sports focused on adults, and change them to be child-centered. Allow the children to compete in a world where they are free to explore and learn.

My initial focus as a final project in the Creative Pulse was to begin to sing again. Singing fulfilled the three requirements of choice in a project: risk, rigor, and the requirement of having to do it. I had sung as a young man, and stopped as the result of listening to an adult tell me that I could not sing. During the following 23 years, I used percussion and became a dancer in order to express myself. The art forms of percussion and dance I was drawn to like a man is drawn to a woman that he must have. What about being drawn to an art form in order to continue existing? An artistic pursuit whose means of expression are a salvation? One can read about many artists who came into an art form out of necessity. Their life outside of expressing themselves was bleak and the art form became their cry. I by no means wish to place myself at the level of expertise of such artists that came to their art to survive, or to imply that I paid my dues to the extent that certain artists have (artists such as Hank Williams, or the Blues artist Robert Johnson, for example). I do mean to express through this paper my experience of the catharsis in singing country music and the Blues. My beginning singing came at a time when I really needed it; the music helped me through a difficult time. The title of the paper is Fall and Redemption: the Essence of Country Music for this reason. It is in Narrative form, foot printing my process and discovery of the music. I attempted to combine lifes experiences with the discovery of the music. The experiences were the inspiration behind playing the music. The essence of country music and the Blues is its sincerity, and I hope that I have combined my lifes narrative with the artistic process effectively, as the time period (December 2005 to June 2007) was a time in which art was defined by life, and life was defined by art.

In this project my primary goal was to expose the public to the artistic self that I was so sure of in high school, but had lost in the years following. I was so sure of myself and art while in the confines of middle school and high school. Once I got into college I found myself lacking that confidence, due to the fact that I was surrounded by many great artists and I felt as though I was not so great anymore. I lost sense of who I am as an artist, and put that talent on a back burner in my life. Since I began the creative pulse, I began regaining a sense of who I am, and realized that I had lost something I truly love. In my field project the first year in the creative pulse, I worked at creating a mural for my unborn child. After realizing that I could do that, I gained some lost confidence and decided to do the stage design, lighting, and artwork for a school play and as my final creative project. I would be working with a colleague and friend in this endeavor, which made it seem a little more doable. After tackling the personal task of doing art again, I felt that the next step in reclaiming myself as an artist was to go big. By going big I mean involving everything I am surrounded by on a daily basis: colleagues, students, family, public, radio, news, and newspaper. I felt that by doing this, my artistic self would have no choice but to be shown; it could no longer hide.