McMahon, StephanieGreen, Josh2021-07-262021-07-262021-05http://hdl.handle.net/10829/24562Thesis 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.I believe that the conflicts which are happening within me, in my search for meaning, are a reflection of what is happening in our culture on a larger scale. I bounce between the bleakness of science and its implicit philosophies of atheism, nihilism, and determinism, and alternatively to the irrational conformity to my inherited myths (i.e., Christianity, Capitalism, Liberalism, etc.). While myths offer order, they can blind us from reason and become tyrannical. So, I create images, visual analogs of my uncertainty, in the medium of western oil painting, the medium that depicted and propagated the great myths of the past. The hollow mythology of my paintings is me simply stating my experience. I use the word “hollow” to illustrate that this myth, once something full of meaning, has lost its substance. For me, all of my myths have lost their meaning because of life experience, my curiosity, and recent events. I am a person who is just existing and experiencing without a reason why. In a later chapter, “The Tremendous Joy of Simply Being”. I consider that this could be an answer, that just being, becoming and paying attention is enough meaning. But in my future work I would like to hopefully find some resolution.28 pagesen-USThe author has granted Alfred University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other rights.MFA thesisAlfred-Dusseldorf PaintingFrench AcademicWestern Oil PaintingLife ExperienceMythThesis