Date of Award

May 2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Visual Arts

Committee Member

Todd McDonald

Committee Member

Andrea Feeser

Committee Member

Anderson Wrangle

Abstract

Encounters in Placelessness features an inherent tension between the observational and the invented. Each painting operates as inquiry, examining how space can be rationalized in the intricacy of human existence. Seeking to reconcile the physical with the existential, these landscapes become a tangible extension of the internal self. They are constantly shifting, changing, transforming, their placelessness reminding one of the ever-changing reality before them. Each moment becomes a collection of a multitude of experiences. My studio practice is intuitive, sifting through old photos, drawings, mementos, as memories seemingly bubble over. Components of different places once called home are collaged together, synthesizing a composition that is simultaneously whole and disjointed. Their dichotomous nature is complimented by working in differing methods of depiction, stylistic changes becoming a motif for the liminal. These imagined landscapes act as the bridge between the internal and the external, the paint giving physicality to imagery that is in itself placeless. With a father in the U.S. Air Force relocation was a regular childhood routine. As a result, I seek stability in the nature of that which is ever-changing. To create these paintings is to ground these fragments of time, reasoning with land and all its sublimity.

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