Forms of repose

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on June 2, 2011).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Professor R. Bede Clarke.Includes bibliographical references.M.F.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011.This creative research explores the interconnectivity between objects and experiences in nature as an impetus for encouraging a reciprocal and sensitive understanding of ourselves in relation to the world. Drawing inspiration from harmonious moments of felt experience, my work comments on the potential for mundane objects and materials to express relationships of fragility and beauty. Through arrangements within composed and self-contained environments, I seek to craft delicate forms, lines and shapes of intimate scale and minimal palette. The works in this investigation seek to build bonds between the role of permanence and a specific language of marks and forms that instill a tranquil state of balance and being. The use of porcelain and non-ceramic materials such as paper, silk, steel and graphite is presented through installations, sculptures and drawings. These works seek to open and affirm connections between viewers and their surroundings by emphasizing careful and meditative interactions. Cultivating small truths and relationships between objects and materials, I present to viewers, a sense of beauty that is fragile and easily hidden from sight. It is through these quiet truths and intimate relationships that I strive to elicit stillness and a state of mindful repose