My Human Nature
Date
2016
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Abstract
As an artist I aspire to explore the true substance of my life. I want a ‘realness’ or authenticity in my work and I want the viewer to feel it. But how do I define art? Why do I make it? Memories like this have helped me in the search for answers. They are mostly from early life and many involve nature of some sort. Some of the details are faded, which leaves me only with how I felt and how I was affected. These thoughts and feelings from childhood, the ones that stick with me, string together to form an inherent sense of self. A personal mythology that pushes and pulls me through life. This sense of self, the inner voice or consciousness we all experience, I call the human spirit. And I believe art is its reflection in the form of expression. My work represents my connection to this spirit and reflects a reawakening to it. Presented through both my physical and intangible relationships with my environment, my work takes the viewer on a personal journey of the self. Investigating what it truly means to be a human as part of, not separate from, the natural world.
Description
Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in the School of Art and Design at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.
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Thesis
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Keywords
MFA thesis, Installations (art), Nature (aesthetics), Environmentalism, Sculpture/Dimensional Studies