2002 Senior Thesis Exhibitions

Samantha Commarato
There is a collection of material within one’s unconscious from birth until death, which greatly affects one’s thoughts, feelings and perceptions.  This material, which often emerges through artwork and dreams through symbols and imagery, shapes an individual for a lifetime.  This installation is based on the concept that the concealed residue of past experience, housed within the unconscious, is reality.  The tangible world, which is most commonly referred to as “reality”, is merely a subjective interpretation of one’s perceptions.  It is the actual experience of life which is real and although the effects of experience are not always apparent, they ultimately shape one’s behavior and perceptions.
Natalie Addeo
Despite the progression of the acknowledgement and acceptance of women's equality over the past century, there remain to be a multitude of pre-existing gender ideologies that permeate contemporary Western civilization.  Most integral to these detrimental viewpoints is the supposed superficiality and narcissistic tendencies of females.  This perspective is not only enabled, but encouraged by reader misconception, misunderstanding, and personalization of the classical literary works of men; the "old masters" who instill these false values by way of focusing on the external appearance of women while simultaneously undermining their mental and emotional capacities.  With this in mind, this installation attempts to heighten viewer/reader awareness of the roots of this misconstrued stereotype through reading between the lines of flowery text and making the core negative values and ideals larger than life for all to see and recognize.
Kristin E. Blahuta
After my research last semester on Vincent van Gogh and Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid’s approach to painting, I found that integrating my exhibition to my student teaching experience would substantially aid me in my visual arts and education experiences. Throughout the process, the artwork includes statistical research and the effects that teaching can make on my students.

The process began by polling the Art 1 students from John P. Stevens High School to find out what is appealing to their eyes. The Art 1 class is offered to students as an art elective and the course is open to students with little or no previous art experience. The procedure is designed to see the effects that teaching can make on students and how the student work can contribute to my landscape series.  The student artwork on a lesson relative to the process contributes many ideas to the artwork. Understanding the relationship between warm and cool colors and its function became an important element in the work. Therefore, the placement of each color to the next shows the movement of color in a composition from morning to night. With this, I desire to use my knowledge of the visual arts to provide artistic knowledge to the students, while also learning more from them. My philosophy of education reveals that I am indeed a learner myself, who is willing and capable of growing from each teaching experience. It was important that the work reveals this philosophy and shows this aspect. A lesson plan on contour drawing was taught to these students in order to provide them with my knowledge of artistic concepts and techniques needed to create a work of art.

The three panel landscape paintings show many of the responses made by the art students. The majority of answers from the poll, addition of raw materials, and student work became the part of the landscape series. The use of an example of the landscape became the stepping-stone for the exhibition. After working with the children, I gathered ideas from their creative minds, which became part of the show. The direction of brushstrokes is applied in the way elements in nature grow and develop from a seed into a fruit. The use of raw materials into the pigment and painting medium provide a feeling of nature. Nature is continually changing, due to weather conditions and change in seasons. The materials fall spontaneously where the life source is present. With this, the work exhibits the integration of art with education and captures intense movement of color expressed in the morning, afternoon, and evening.
Sing Mui Wong
This project began with a selection of photographic images of Hong Kong and conceptualizing different themes for each of the posters. The idea was to create a series of unconventional travel posters that would represent the various aspects of Hong Kong. I explored the possibility of using simple geometric forms for the poster design. Through the use of similar layouts and a circular motif, I intend to make all five posters relate to one another. Standing alone, each poster would show an aspect of Hong Kong. When all five posters are presented together as a group, hanging side by side, they look like a unit.

Design is a creative process. The job of a designer is to communicate, not decorate; to change perceptions, build loyalties, and express the individual nature of every organization we work with. These posters have my own stylistic ideals as well. They each have a distinguishable and dramatic use of color, line and division of space. Their unique layout treatment also breaks away from the typical single-image dominated travel poster.
Marcia Chapin
The main goal I was striving to achieve as I worked on my exhibition was to get the viewer drawn into my work, whether it was by using depth of field, or by focusing the attention on a certain structure or object.  My intent behind black and white photography was a means to exaggerate and give more contrast to the photographs. Black and white photography I believe gives a photograph more character.  This form of photography is more expressive and enhances the composition.  When choosing the theme of churches, ideally, my intention was to photograph the rock; the solid unchangeable dimensions.  By photographing the building as well as the cemetery, my goal was to mirror the styles of Ansel Adams and Walker Evans, either through the image’s ability to speak for itself or by the photograph giving an unchangeable hard-edged fact that the viewer can understand.

As I approached the various compositions, I attempted to find a layout that would dictate both artists’ style and carry the viewer’s eyes throughout each piece. I chose to focus the attention on the structural life of the church. (i.e., that being the building and the spiritual after life of the church portrayed in cemeteries.) In an attempt to achieve the concept of immortality and to accomplish my goals, I wanted to portray the strength of the religious aspect of the church through the use of strong photographs. My entire show was mounted on three walls of the gallery and the installation of these photographs was cropped to 8” x 10” size. They were placed on a parallel plane horizontal to the eye level of the viewer.

As I worked independently I found great freedom, less boundaries and no limits. I was able to display and recreate the images that I felt were significant to my overall thesis of the church structure and its environment.  I attempted to enhance the religious characteristics of the church through various structures and surroundings of the church.  I focused my attention of black and white photography, similar to the works of Adams and Evans, I based my photography primarily on the landscape of the church. Through out the whole procedure my appreciation for artists such as Evans and Adams has dramatically increased, causing me to have new appreciation for this medium.  I have found myself more attracted to black and white photography and it has inspired me to consider taking on new endeavors in this field.
Nicole Cimorelli
My exhibition is about self-portraiture and the psyche. I believe that portraiture is a form of art that should reflect its subject from the inside out. Traditional portraits tend to show individuals who are candy-coated in some way; whether it is by make-up, particular garb, pose or facial expression. This does not allow the viewer to have a real sense of the person behind the adorned shell, causing the representations to be static and seemingly lifeless. Although people may be more compelled by traditional portraits, I am more interested in the emotional and temporal aspects of individuals. Being human is being imperfect and that is what is most important to express. I am drawn to the personal stories that exist around a person’s life, and their particular humanity. Individual human psychology and the states of mind are intriguing to me, and I find something important about conveying them. Other people can be compelling to depict truthfully and expressively, but it is even more challenging at times to portray the self and its different dimensions. My work does not aim to idealize myself in any way. I am not presenting photographed or color-copied images of myself. Different states of “Nicole” are presented to the audience. The internal aspects of “Nicole” speak out to the viewer. These painting are simply an exploration of personal emotion, thought, subjectivity and life, as I know it. All of these elements make a portrait feel alive and much more tangible than someone statically posed. People can feel the vulnerability within the work. That is powerful. What is candid or spontaneous and ultimately true of life, adds to that power. I wanted my materials to convey my ideas and the inner self, beyond what is physical, and provide the viewer with honest and hopefully thought provoking artwork.