The intention of this creative project is to explore the ideas of individuality and community through ceramic sculpture. The ultimate goal is to allow the viewers to draw their own conclusions about the suggested meaning, instead of forcing a direct reference. To achieve this, form, surface, texture, and grouping of individual pieces was utilized. Inspiration was drawn from the artworks of Barbara Hepworth, Michele Oka Doner, Yoonchung Kim, and from the multiple appendages of the sea anemone. The artworks were hand-built using high temperature clays that were fired in reduction, soda, and wood kilns. Plaster molds were used to maintain the identical forms, allowing the viewer to focus on textural variation. / Department of Art

The primary objective for this creative project is to develop a series of wheel-thrown and altered ceramic sculptures that reflect my intuitive formation process. Although the work was influenced by a wide variety of outside sources, much of the impetus was born of my personal reflections on the concept of physical touch. My actions during the creation process were governed by sensory information absorbed mostly through my hands on the clay, and enhanced by inherent properties of the material. These preliminary experiences eventually sparked a desire to share this discovery with the viewer in the same tactile way. I further wished to include observers in the exhibit in a more direct and physical way, offering participants opportunities to explore their own sense of touch and consider how they relate to the objects around them. This body of work is an in-depth study of my intuitive creative process, a model for exploring the relationships between process and materials, and a means of providing observers of visual art a chance to connect with a visual object in a tactile way. / Department of Art

We are accustomed to meanings, signs, language, and the constraints, categories, and concepts which make-up what I acknowledge as boundaries. These are integral for interaction with people, with other forms of life, with landscapes, and with ourselves. Without boundaries there would not be progression or understanding with that which is "the other."Boundaries are categorized into four areas within these creative projects. They are environment, language, states of being, and destination. Within the categories various projects explore what create intangible separations which denote the boundary and create a visible representation of each.Within each category projects are organized by content, objective, and outcome. Some results proved to be more successful than others by effectively conveying meaning through the various imagery and objects of the installations. Often, a viewer's preference f one project over another was due to the use of a specific medium, building method, and overall design rather than the concept or idea which inspired it.The paradoxical notion of these explorations is due to the exemplification of the connections surrounding and, perhaps, instigating each boundary. Attempts to visibly explore boundaries through their connections provide glimpses of built separation markers (environment), words and phrases which may separate or connect (language), alterations of physicality (states of being), and the ambiguous quality which denotes a place (destination) such that each becomes discernable but, more importantly, that each may be surpassed. It is through the visibility of the categories and understanding of their connections in which the boundaries go beyond manifesting themselves through the viewers' collective questioning the possibilities. / Department of Art

The objective of this creative project is the creation of sculptures and paintings that make statements concerning judgment and its subsets, fault, blame, martyrdom, self-sacrifice, and absolution. The group of pieces shown at the Thesis Exhibition explores recurring themes and iconography within a historical context, while addressing issues in a contemporary social framework. Repetitive elements and images such as self-portraits, the pointing finger, and the heart, are set in the present, but layered with the iconography and history of Saint Sebastian. The techniques used to achieve these works are metal casting and fabrication, casting using a variety of materials, woodworking, and oil painting. These techniques, along with materials such as wood, steel, plaster, wax, and branches congeal to form a body of work that is conceptually harmonious. / Department of Art

The first objective of this creative project was to create seven Non-figurative, abstract, multi-media (wood, metals, clay, concrete, glass) sculptures that attempted to express some of the feelings experienced during transitions in life. The second objective was to explore the continuum of abstract sculptural art: from art being simply aesthetically stimulating compositions to art that emphasizes meaning or purpose first, and being aesthetically pleasing or stimulating second. / Department of Art