Date of Graduation

5-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts in Art (MFA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Art

Advisor/Mentor

Musgnug, Kristin A.

Committee Member

Grant, Alphonso W.

Second Committee Member

King, Sam

Third Committee Member

Mitchell, Marc E.

Fourth Committee Member

Maizels, Michael

Keywords

Fine Art; Fuzzy Logic; Memory; Painting; Perception

Abstract

Liable to Change is a body of paintings in which I explore diverse approaches to the representation of visual space. Depictions of space and movement change throughout the pictures by combining various artistic conventions, such as trompe l’oeil realism and non-objective, geometric abstraction. Oil paint, resin, beeswax, and other materials create built-up surfaces which contain the history of their making. Interaction between various finishes and light on these surfaces changes based on the viewers' proximity to the painting. Images of monkey bars, lattice, golden ratio and flower of life patterns provide a structure through which line, form, and space are represented. The disruption of logic created within these structures serves to provide multiple ways of viewing the paintings. These compositions also provide opportunities to visualize the mutability of perception and logic. Through relating my experience of third-person memory following a fall, proximity in space and time is shown to shift and change the perception of an event. This freedom of navigation within the picture plane can be interpreted as a metaphor of wide access to information on the internet. The ability afforded to the masses to assemble their own understanding of cultural memory is blurring the binary construction of collective memory. In this way, the basic principles of fuzzy logic provide a new perspective in visualizing issues surrounding present-day collective memory construction. Through this body of work, I am not addressing physical disruption on the surface of the canvas, as well as disruption of perception systems. My depictions of destabilized perception systems stand as a metaphor for an unstable/unregulated information hub—the internet—and the fallibility/malleability of human memory.

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