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TESTIMONIALS, a novella and other stories, is set within the Bay Area — deep in the districts long removed from the municipal budget — and delves into the lives of men, women, and adolescents longing for acknowledgment, reinvention, and peace amongst the many spirits, past and present. In ‘Yard Range,’ a woman finds a surrogate in her Senator’s child and wonders what it would take to change one man’s vote. ‘Body Known’ follows a masseuse treating clients whose bodies archive stories, songs, jokes, and confessions. In ‘Height Marks,’ an elder passes on survival tips to a nephew ostracized from the family. ‘Spirit Per Capita’ chronicles one woman's desperate search for the woman who changed her life. In ‘Autofiction,’ a man must negotiate the cruelest of requests: tell us a story. And in the novella ‘The Snow,’ a child and a night janitor navigate the worst summer camp in San Francisco, where strange messes happen overnight, and where words must be stolen. Utilizing first, second, and collective narrations, these stories explore lives not defined by victimhood or race but by irretrievable and fleeting choices, unforgivable compromises, and loyalty to one’s people and one’s self. Here, history doesn’t repeat: it echoes, couplets, and yearns for you.

Practical knowledge, as defined by Freema Elbaz (1983), is a complex, practically oriented set of understandings which teachers use to actively shape and direct their work. The goal of this study is the construction of a social science portrait that illuminates the practical knowledge of a large lecture professor of general chemistry at a public research university in the southeast. This study continues Elbaz's (1981) work on practical knowledge with the incorporation of a qualitative and intentionally interventionist methodology which "blurs the boundaries of aesthetics and empiricism in an effort to capture the complexity, dynamics, and subtlety of human experience and organizational life," (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis, 1997). This collection of interviews, observations, writings, and reflections is designed for an eclectic audience with the intent of initiating conversation on the topic of the large lecture and is a purposeful attempt to link research and practice. Social science portraiture is uniquely suited to this intersection of researcher and researched, the perfect combination of methodology and analysis for a project that is both product and praxis. The following research questions guide the study. Are aspects of Elbaz's practical knowledge identifiable in the research conversations conducted with a large lecture college professor? Is practical knowledge identifiable during observations of Patricia's large lecture chemistry classroom practice? Freema Elbaz conducted research conversations with Sarah, a high school classroom and writing resource teacher who conducted much of her teaching work one on one with students. Patricia's practice differs significantly from Sarah's with respect to subject matter and to scale. / Ph. D.

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Cases of Italian embedded self-portraiture appear in the sacred art of some of the most renowned artists of the Cinquecento and early Seicento, artists such as Bronzino, Michelangelo, Titian, Tintoretto, and Caravaggio. This thesis first examines the history of the practice from its origins in Quattrocento Florence and Venice then argues that an important development in the function and presentation of embedded self-portraits can be observed as Cinquecento artists experienced broad shifts in religious and cultural life as a result of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. It also assesses three works by Caravaggio to suggest that embedding self-portraits in religious art was a variable and meaningful convention that allowed artists to inject both their personal and public emotions. This thesis argues that in the Cinquecento and early Seicento, the very gesture of embedding a self-portrait in sacred artworks provided a window into an artist's individuality, personality, and piety.

This paper discusses the relationship between gender expression and gender identity. It recounts my personal exploration of the two through the process of photographing two fellow AFAB individuals to create visual representations of their gender expressions while interviewing them to examine how these expressions relate to the gender with which they identify. Following this, I engage in self-reflection taking into consideration both the narratives of my peers as well as Judith Butler's insights on gender. The project culminates with a series of self portraits and a conclusion on how I came to understand both facets my gender.

Paintings of women as individual subjects were a popular theme in the Mughal court during the mid-seventeenth century, or the Shah Jahan period (ca. 1628-1658). These portraits depict idealized archetypes with subtle differences in facial and bodily features. The same portrait conventions were used for both historical and imaginary women. This thesis has three aims: (1) identify and explain the significance of three elements that visually represent an ideal Mughal woman using a case study from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts called Page from the Nasir al-Din Shah Album: Portrait of a Mughal Woman (ca. 1630-45), (2) combine visual and textual sources to further the study of Mughal women, and (3) reinsert the portraits of Mughal women within a larger scope of female imagery in Indian art to show that Mughal paintings encompass just one part of a much bigger story. Paintings of Mughal women are not only aesthetic works of art—they are historical artifacts.

The written component of my thesis will take the form of an extended artist statement in which I discuss all six paintings included in my thesis exhibition. A major theme of my work is sexuality, specifically female sexuality. This thesis will begin by looking at the three miniature paintings that spearheaded the investigation of this theme. I will examine the generalized and personal feminist symbolism that these paintings contain. The two works that followed the miniatures are depictions of sexual interactions between my husband and myself. I will explain the significance of my depictions and relate them to the work of contemporary painters who deal with the same subject matter. The last painting in this series is a seven by eight foot landscape. I will explain how it relates to my figurative work and why nature has a constant presence in all of my paintings. Lastly, I will clarify why the lighting and composition of my paintings takes the form of traditional stage sets.

I draw on my natural interest in my family’s eclectic collections – both traditional and personal – to create poetic portraits composed of carefully made and arranged objects. The goal of my portraiture is not to convey physical likeness; superseding the imitation of appearance is psychological portrayal of the desires and disappointments of the sitter. Often, a fragmented sense of self is revealed – both in others and in myself – and I seek to depict the kaleidoscopic nature of individuals in their given situations. Possessing whimsical, playful elements as well as encounters with lack and longing, I create work to escape what in my life is unbearable as well as to finally embrace that which I cannot possibly escape.

Arguably life threatening and chronic illness is not just an attack on the body, it is an attack on a person s sense of self-identity, shattering the means by which a person experiences the world, and by which they also are experienced, contributing to a person s sense of powerlessness and distress. People living with a life threatening or chronic illness, often describe the impact of their diagnosis, treatment and illness as having changed their sense of self-identity beyond all recognition. Seven participants, purposefully selected from those attending a weekly day-hospice session in Wiltshire, took part in the study. This qualitative, practice-based research project challenges the power dynamics in art therapy and attempts to equalise the relationship between researcher and participant through the development of a collaborative intersubjective relationship, within which the participants are recognised as experts on their lived experience, and in a series of negotiations , co-design their own portraits directing how they wish to be portrayed. Through this process the participants become patient/researchers (PRs) and the artist/therapist/researcher (ATR), by creating the portraits, also becomes a reflexive participant . This project utilises an in-depth multiple case-study design and multiple creative data generation methods as well as a phenomenological approach to data analysis. This project reverses the terms of engagement within art therapy and uses the art therapist s artistic practice or third hand to create portraits for patients. (This is based upon the assumption that most art therapy theories terms of engagement include patients producing art within the therapeutic encounter, however some psychodynamic and psychoanalytic art therapists may use client art generation selectively or not at all). This raises important questions around who makes the artwork in art therapy interventions . The use of portraiture as a third hand intervention enables the art therapist to develop a sense of positive focussed attention and mirroring and attunement through the art object, enabling the addition of coherence through aesthetic resonance and the holding of dualities through metaphor and symbolism. The results of this study demonstrate the power of portraiture as an intersubjective way of knowing, being and relating, enabling the revisioning of identities disrupted by illness, characterised by increases in participants creative capacity to adapt to illness and feelings of home-like-being-in-the-world, developing a stronger, more coherent lived experience of self-identity, effecting closure to difficult life experiences, and improving their overall quality of life.