No description available.

No description available.

During the eighteen century there was a significant growth in patchwork materially and linguistically. It was the century when patchwork was stitched at all levels of society and has been identified as the time when patchwork moved out from the small domestic world of decorative sewing into the wider public sphere, leaving behind other needlework as it became embedded in the language and writing of the period. This research examines the social and cultural contexts relating to the making of patchwork in the long eighteenth century and in doing so contributes to the story of women and their material lives in the period. Noted for its longevity, surviving as a widespread practice across the century, patchwork was a democratic needlework that was practiced by any woman capable of stitching a variety of fabric pieces together to make a larger whole. A widespread understanding of the term and familiarity with the practice enabled it to be employed successfully in the literal and figurative language of the period. Patchwork was heralded as a fashionable activity in the early eighteenth century, but was later used to represent the ideal of the moral and capable housewife, devoted to her sewing skills and thrifty in her practice. The figurative style of the period allowed the simultaneous use of the word in differing ways so that patchwork was used both positively and negatively in literature, drama, critical review, political debate and theoretical discourse.

The title of my thesis is appropriately borrowed from a romance novel title, as my work proposes to mine the content, design and culture of romance novels and other erotic texts in order to excavate my own queer romance narrative. The body of work includes large-scale drawings of “stand-in boyfriends” stolen from romance novel covers, pieced fabric text works based on the titles of erotic texts, and a couch covered in erotic reading material. Drawing attention to the ubiquity of heterosexualized images and texts by deconstructing them, my work critically questions larger social constructions of normality and deviance, pleasure and disturbance, and high and low culture, as they pertain to ideas of love, romance and sexuality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dept. of Art and Art History and Dept. of Sociology. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2008. / "A dissertation in art history and sociology." Advisor: Maude Southwell Wahlman. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Feb. 6, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-247). Online version of the print edition.

No description available.

This paper is the supporting document for the Master of Fine Arts exhibition, The Door in the Threshold, held in the Slocumb Galleries at East Tennessee State University from March 15-19, 2010. The exhibition contains twelve pieces of artwork, mounted on the wall. The paper expands upon such themes as memory and family as explored by the work in the gallery. The title of both the paper and show reference the impact of my Armenian heritage on my creative process. Doors in Armenian folklore were sacred places containing the threshold to the spiritual. Thus, my pieces are meant to become doors to the threshold of my past. Also discussed in the paper are the influence of the quilt form and connections to the work of artists Arshile Gorky, Whitfield Lovell, and Karen Hampton.

This thesis is in support of the exhibition entitled Getting Warmer, on display in Slocumb Galleries at East Tennessee State University from March 19 to March 23, 2007. The exhibition represents an exploration in the medium of fibers, incorporating digitally printed photographs on fabric and quilted structures. The collage of photographic textures and the stitched lines of machine embroidery reflect the artist's interest in the formal qualities of mapmaking and topography. Conceptually, the work is concerned with the idea of material as landscape and artwork as personal geography. This thesis addresses the artistic and cultural influences, the artistic process and previous works, and the conceptual development of the work.

This interpretive study investigated the "quilt" and its significance to Latter-day Saint Women. Mormon master quilters were chosen because of their knowledge of fabrics, patterns, and symbolism, their skill levels, and their intense interest in quilting. The researcher conducted interviews with the master quilters from July 1995 to April 1996. Field notes were taken and data concerning both observed actions and verbal comments regarding the importance of the quilt were collected, charted, coded, and analyzed.Several dominant patterns and themes emerged from analyses of the data, including: quilting is an enjoyable and active art form among Mormon women, pattern selection is a personal choice and one of immediate interest to the quilter, Mormon women quilt for personal reasons, textiles are important to the quilting process, and quilts are used for gifts of endearment, financial gain, awards or rewards, and artistic expression. It was determined that Mormon quilters are not significantly different from other quilters. There is only one specific quilt pattern that is unique to the Mormons and not used by other quilt cultures.