Date of Graduation

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts in Art (MFA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Art

Advisor/Mentor

Hulen, Jeannie L.

Committee Member

McConnell, Mathew S.

Second Committee Member

DeWitt, Dylan J.

Third Committee Member

Mazow, Leo G.

Keywords

Communication and the arts; Psychology; Affect theory; Body language; Ceramics; Original artwork; Sculpture

Abstract

My research is in the realm of the psychological, the emotional and way these drives manifest physically. The works in Noise. aims to give a physical representation to the non-physical. Research on Affect Theory and the teachings of Silvan Tomkins were paramount to understanding emotional drives and the ways in which they manifest.

The purpose of this research is to understand how emotions are generated and communicated and to ask if specific emotions can be generated upon viewing inanimate objects. I create abstract figurative sculpture, which imitate emotion that has no specific physicality. These works exist with one foot in abstraction and the other in allusion. The work attempts to synthesize what emotions are and how they affect us on a physiological level and to give these emotions form. I take cues from body language and facial expression.

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