Identifier

etd-05252016-171313

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Art

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The works in the “Intimate Immensities” series of landscape paintings function as “aporia,” or irresolvable contradictions. Using two aspects of Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic designations of the sign: the “icon” and “index,” these paintings function as both iconographic representations of mankind’s spiritual connection with nature and indexical relics of the creative process as ritual. The foundational view out of which the work emerges is grounded in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. This thesis correlates Vajrayana Buddhism, ritual and the creative process, by explaining the parallels between ritual and the cognition that occurs during the creative process. To do this, the discussion uses the three-stages of ritual as theorized by Arnold Van Gennep: “separation,” “margin” and “aggregation,” Victor Turner’s terms: “structure,” “anti-structure” and “liminal” and the research into the creative process by educator and Ph.D, Nicole M. Gnedza. By fluctuating between the two ontological states of index and icon, the work resists stasis, however by representing a spiritual theme via both these means the work forms a cohesive whole.

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Celentano, Denyce

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.95

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Fine Arts Commons

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