Year of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

Painting and Drawing

Department or School/College

Department of Art

Committee Chair

James Bailey

Commitee Members

Cathryn Mallory, Mike Monsos

Keywords

art, carnival, figurative, installation, narrative, painting

Abstract

Abstract The Extravaganza Awaits This paper addresses ideas in my thesis work, consisting of a series of paintings which evolved into installation. My ideas concern notions of spectacle, consumption of information, and self-gratifying selection. I lighten these ideas with humor and treat them with a carnivalesque aesthetic, appropriate to the absurdity that I see characteristic of them. Painting places the issues in a narrative context, but the story remains open- ended to allow the viewer to bring personal associations to the work. I specifically selected images of friends and family unfamiliar to the viewer and a lexicon of personal symbols to maintain mystery, which should bring the viewer back to the series again and again. Installation helps the viewer physically interact with the work, giving more time to make associations, consume information, behave with the characters, and eventually witness their own behaviors. I hope for the viewer’s recognition of complicity not only with the work itself, but with the ideas contained in the work, because I believe these ideas are universal and, though important, sometimes overlooked.

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© Copyright 2008 Kathryn Lorraine Rodriguez