Strange Creature

Author

Dagny Walton, University of Montana, MissoulaFollow

Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Degree Name

Art

Department or School/College

School of Visual and Media Arts

Committee Chair

James Bailey

Commitee Members

Jennifer Combe, Emily Ruskovich, Sarah Jones

Keywords

American West, Mythology, Screenprint, Printmaking, Cultural Criticism, Roman Mythology

Publisher

University of Montana

Subject Categories

American Popular Culture | Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity | Art Practice | Illustration | Other Classics | Printmaking

Abstract

Strange Creature is an exploration and renovation of the myth of the American West. I extract elements from the known and recognizable myth of the West and create my own rendition, focusing in particular on themes of transformation and violence. Here in this black mirror world, animals speak out loud, cowboys face down a wildland with eyes, and two suns light up the lonely sky. There is no continuous narrative thread, but each piece is a vignette that takes place in a single shared world. This world is at once familiar and completely alien. I intend to surprise the viewer

with the pairing of known (the frontier, cowboys and their horses) and unknown elements (animal- human hybrids, unexpected relationships between man and beast, and surreal landscapes).

All of the text and piece titles are quotations from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an ancient Roman poem about myth and transformation. I adopted Metamorphoses as a guiding text to explore the themes of change, ambition, and hubris as they manifest in the American West. Ultimately, I am interested in re-contextualizing the newness of the myth of the West using ancient mythological stories and symbolism.

Recommended Citation

Walton, Dagny, "Strange Creature" (2023). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12070.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12070