Herron School of Art and Design Theses

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4thness
(2020) Mullen, Frank; Hull, Greg
Charlie Gordon hung a box. It was mounted on the front of his house, next to the door, narrow and painted black and oddly proportioned, like a talisman, like a ovate refugee from Easter Island. He hung it there so deliveries of large, flat boxes could be put safely inside, protected from the weather in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. They never did it though, the FedEx people, and UPS, the Postal Service. They always left them on the porch floor, under the box, in front of god and everyone, and this was a great annoyance to Charlie Gordon, the star of our show.
Adam's Epic of America
(2020) Rathbun, Adam; Nordgulen, Eric
Adam explores Adam's Epic of America through time, American objects & kulture.
Adaptability
(2018) Fox, Hannah; Hudnall, Katie
At the core of humanity is a driving force to create and change our environments to better suit our liking. In this century, the need fo hand-making in the developed world is becoming obsolete. As privileged Americans we no longer need to make utilitarian objects using these processes to stay warm or even to survive. Everything we "need" is mass produced in factories we will never visit, by machines most of us could not even begin to operate or comprehend. The most abundant of these commodities are made from plastic. An entirely unnatural and man-made material, plastic is used an discarded at a rate unmatched by almost any other substance. My thesis work utilizes recycled material, specifically polypropylene biohazard bags, to identify the destructive realities of human waste and consumption in contemporary society. By confronting viewers with grotesque overwhelming forms of melted plastic the work is a rumination on human adaptation to technologically-driven wasteful consumerist life in the 21st century.
Amnesia
(2019) Jorgensen, Elizabeth; Nordgulen, Eric
Because of childhood trauma much of my work is inspired by photographs. With my work, I am trying to recover and work through memories and piece together the years that are missing from my memory. Finding the how and why behind my brain and my suppressed traumatic memories has been an ongoing search. Growing up in a toxic, alcoholic and abusive filled home environment my brain developed a type of amnesia. It is with this in consideration that I have started to let my work be inspired by personal events. Working towards feeling comfortable with seeking the truths of my childhood I have begun producing autobiographical work. Mining through my mind to find meaning and identify particular reasons behind my behaviors and struggles I have experienced, have become the driving force behind my work. My found-object assemblage sculptural work examines the aspect of identity through the use of aesthetic experience. The use of found objects, remnants of the past allows me to examine my memories, while questioning their validity. The work seeks to engage my audience in recalling a memory of their own that may have shaped their identity.
An:Other
(2018) Alderson, Nicole; Nordgulen, Eric; Baker, Lesley; Kinsman, Patrick
Otherness comes in many forms: it is a profound awareness of the metaphorical and physical space between, whether that space is the distance between two people, a person and the world they live in, or the perceived self and the internal self. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas wrote extensively on the notion of the Other throughout his career, and my work is a response to these ideas. For Levinas, the mask was the veil that is put on and becomes motionless and expressionless as whatever within us that makes us recognizable takes leave. Personally, I believe that this mask is not a single one but many diverse and evolving disguises we create, mold, and replace as we travel along the continuum of life. The idea of the mask is the way I choose to represent and recognize the fluidity of my own identity. The mask I display at any given moment, consciously or unconsciously, is dependent upon both situation and company. Through the metaphor of the mask, I explore the intensity of emotion brought on by a questioning of identity and a sense of Otherness. The emotion I'm most interested in during this process is contemplative melancholy. I'm attracted to the sadness and the darkness or the empty searching in people because it's an inherent fact of life and its presence in the world makes me feel alive as it gives me something to contrast the more uplifting or life affirming moments against. In my work I aim to bring to light the pervasiveness of the feelings of Otherness and malaise as deeply relatable truths of human condition.
Apologies: A journey toward self-discovery through an unraveling of the masculine tradition
(2018) Walsh, Justin; Petranek, Stefan
What is the Measure of a Man? Before allowing the brain to run away giggling with euphemistic glee, consider the import of this question as it has effected boys for centuries as they grow, not only in personhood but inexorably toward the four-walled confinement of what is defined as "Manhood." Being a man in my early 30's I am increasingly confronted by how my own identity is shaped in relation to this box. Thus, within my current body of work one central question arises that forms the foundation upon which all other thematic notions find their footing; What kind of man am I?
An Architectural Imaginary
(2014-05-20) Shopoff, Marna; Horvath, Robert
My work is a vehicle to investigate the perceptual intimacy I find within public spaces. Blending contemporary with classical approaches to art and spatial relationships, I use the idea of perception as a function of human experience, place and personal memory. I explore compositional, personal and experiential connections while creating an invitation for the viewer to do the same. A paradox exists within the material realm. I identify with who I am through the spaces I inhabit and feel as if my body can extend its presence into the built environment. My artwork becomes a lens that reveals the temporality of my experiences. Using architecture and abstraction as a philosophical approach in my paintings, architecture becomes both a visual bridge between inside and out, and a passageway of self-reflection. Abstraction is a way to move through a space. My work explores how art can become a space by its interaction with the environment and how the space can become the artwork. I conceptualize ideas relating to place identity and my lived experiences within the built environment. I view the world in a particular way because of the context in which I have experienced it: the architecture, spatial politics, personal relationships, public and private intimate spaces. I am interested in the interpretation of and the interactions with the spaces that surround me: what memories or feelings do these spaces spark and what sort of energy do they project? Likewise, I am interested in the roles that art plays in culture, architecture, and the site-specificity of spatial relationships that are formed by these interactions. My work explores whether, through art, we can share our individual perceptions, whether someone can access and experience a new view of the world through my artwork and how I can create a new space via my art.
Arsenal
(2018) Carroll, Brenna; Jefferson, Corey; Baker, Lesley; Robertson, Jean
Traumatic experience inspires the human drive for expression. Survivors carry the memory of trauma with them throughout their lives while they struggle to comprehend its impact. They maintain a fragile stability as their capacity to more forward is challenged and their perception of the world around them is altered. The force of memory compels those who have survived a traumatic event to build a defensive arsenal and to search for and to convey an understanding of their experience. My minimalist abstract ceramic sculpture examines the incidence of trauma and explores the transference of concepts and emotions associated with its effects.
Art Therapy and Art Museums: Recommendations for Collaboration
(2018) King, Lauren; Misluk, Eileen
An integrative systematic literature review was used to determine recommendations for collaboration between art museums and art therapy practice. Concepts including history of the art museum, programming in art museums, benefits of looking at artwork in person, therapeutic factors of art therapy, and therapeutic factors of art museums were explored in the literature review. Factors present in the art museum include potential space, and physical aspects of the therapeutic museum space. Physical aspects of the museum allow individuals to relate to museum collections and physical boundaries of the museum similarly to how they relate to people in their lives. By connecting therapeutic factors present in art therapy and in art museums, areas in need of improvement were found relating to how art therapists were using the museum as a space in which to conduct art therapy. The art therapy articles found detailing art therapy programming in art museums were examined and as a result, recommendations in the areas of media dimension variables and the ETC, use of museum artwork, therapeutic factors of art therapy, therapeutic factors of art museums, and utilization of gallery space for artmaking were provided.
Art Therapy in Opiate Use Disorder: Moving Toward an Integrated Treatment Framework
(2021-05) Sentir, Alena; Misluk, Eileen
Drug addiction is a major public health concern resulting in deleterious consequences to individuals and society. Yet, addiction is a recoverable disease with the right support. Although evidence-based treatments exist for opiate use disorder, many individuals remain treatment refractory and die from overdoses. These individuals often present to treatment with dual diagnosis and polysubstance use, which are conditions that increase client complexity and barriers to recovery. An integrative systematic literature review was conducted to examine how art therapy has been used in these populations and ways that it could be incorporated into current addiction neuroscience treatment. The culmination is a six-session proposal with the goal of increasing treatment retention in refractory populations. Through the framework of the Expressive Therapies Continuum and modern addiction neuroscience treatment, the proposal is theorized to integrate limbic to cortical functioning, stimulate motivation, increase empowerment, and support clients during recovery. Though the proposal gives special consideration to those with opiate use disorder in medication-assisted treatment, it inclusive of other substance use disorders and accounts for various client complexities, as well as being easily adaptable by an art therapist to different treatment settings.

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