Date of Award

8-8-2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Art and Design

First Advisor

Matthew Sugarman, MFA

Second Advisor

John Decker, PhD

Third Advisor

Craig Drennen, MFA

Fourth Advisor

Christina West, MFA

Abstract

In the narrative painting series Discount Meat, I employ grotesque realism to emphasize the rupture of corporeal and social boundaries, reframing the body as a site of discontinuity whose physical and perceptual structures are in constant flux. Through this approach, I synthesize fragments of lived and observed experience into invented narratives with an emphasis on embodiment. By emphasizing the apertures connecting the body’s interior with the outside world, I seek to problematize the image of a discrete self, suggesting instability as a central element of physical identity. Across this web of disjointed narratives, I strive to portray the emotional range and complexity of human experience in terms of vivid physicality, depicting tedium and pain while allowing space in the work for levity and imagination.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/10340774

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