Year of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

Printmaking

Department or School/College

School of Art

Committee Chair

James Bailey

Commitee Members

H. Rafael Chacon, Mike Monsos

Keywords

dimension, intaglio, luminosity, contrast, duality, timeline, acceleration, possibility, woodcut, quantum, expansionist, inner and outer space, distance, time, travel, recognition, relativity, potential, physics

Abstract

Malsch, Carmen, M.F.A., Summer 2014. Fine Art Currents of Time and Universe Chairperson: Professor James Bailey Abstract Currents of Time and Universe explores personal awareness and connection to the universe. Large woodcut and intaglio prints describe a visual vocabulary for universal themes. In this vocabulary, a current is the image for awareness, connection, and motion in space and time. Bird forms frequenting the images represent the habitation of both earth and sky. Less grounded and more of the air than the human, the bird image identifies with the inner life of a person more than with the physical body. However, as with the bird, definite and necessary aspects of each do not exist without the other. A concept of motion pervades the images. Motion of both the universe and of an individual traveling through it, refer to the experience of time. Contrast and luminosity, as well as positive/negative relationships, become part of the visual vocabulary of universe awareness. In night skies appearing black and white, luminosity and contrast define what we know as the universe. Dark is when we see it most vividly. Constellations, galaxies and stars, even our moon are most defined in contrast, lit in the absence of overall light. Contrast is also a metaphor for the related concept of traveling. The space between cities viewed from a car or plane at night is dark; the objects of departure or arrival are lit in glowing centers of light. A journey between points describes time as distance. The subject matter is almost entirely portrayed in black and white contrast. A visual interplay of positive/negative space refers to the Escher-like quality of awareness, and to the nature of human experience. Time/space is defined by both memory and distance. Distance is external space; memory is internal space. A conceptual universe exists both within the person and outside of them. Each of these universes continue to be investigated as they have since our earliest beginnings, yet each largely escapes definition. What we know about the universe is rapidly changing in unexpected ways. On a forefront of possibility, visual thinking does not necessarily preclude scientific, or vice versa.  

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© Copyright 2014 Carmen Malsch