Danilo Bojic

Ted Closson

Sebastian Forray

Lisa Garrett

Steven Hook

Chuck Ivy

Rosine Kouamen

Natali Leduc

Emily McGrew

Abi Semtner

M’kina Tapscott

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON • SCHOOL OF ART

THESIS EXHIBITIONMASTER OF

FINE ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON • SCHOOL OF ART

THESIS EXHIBITIONMASTER OF

FINE ARTS

The 34th University of Houston School of Art Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition is made possible in part by the University of Houston’s Student Fees Advisory Comitee.

University of Houston, School of Art100 Fine Arts BuildingHouston, TX 77204-4019

ISBN: 000-00-000000-0

Designer: Circe Mendez

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Introduction

Danilo Bojic Graphic Communication

Ted Closson Painting

Sebastian Forray Painting

Lisa Garrett Graphic Communication

Steven Hook Painting

Chuck Ivy Interdisciplinary Practice and Emerging

Forms

Rosine Kouamen Photography and Digital Media

Natali Leduc Sculpture

Emily McGrew Painting

Abi Semtner Painting

M’kina Tapscott Sculpture

INTRODUCTION

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To assess one’s formal education as an artist is to begin to map a context that embodies not just the individual, creative spirit, but also the community we create, which has the power to imbue artworks with meaning and status. This is often commuted through an audience, a thoughtful and responsive peer group that becomes simultaneously a safety net and an agitation. While it’s often easier and sometimes more pleasant to see only what you want to see, it’s crucial at other times to have things pointed out that you don’t really want to acknowledge. This is part of why artists return to graduate school: to rekindle the critical apparatus, and stimulate what can go dormant or numb during bouts of working day jobs, and most importantly, to find an audience.

INTRODUCTION

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there is the possibility of calling in sick. But as an artist, you are your own Human Resource: a department of one.

It is a profound struggle to be an artist in America: there is very little public understanding of it as a professional trajectory. For instance, while the iconic doll Barbie eventually became more than just a pretty face, as she morphed into a wage earner, she became an astronaut, or a member of the Armed Services. She never became an artist. This is one of the many reasons why a handful of postwar artists, such as Picasso, Pollock, and Warhol, have been revered as cultural heroes: because they rejected societal norms and embraced their inner momentum. But this too is now an outmoded model.

Contemporary artists must find a way to engage with the world, or risk being irrelevant. Artwork can function in a variety of arenas: as social practice, as political commentary, as economic commodity, what one makes is far from being just an object. And if it is just an object, then it must find

So what does learning look like in a Master of Fine Arts program? The richness of the experience is grounded in face- to-face human interaction. Neither face-to-phone, nor face-to-screen. Perhaps it is even less visual than textual, social, intellectual: a reinvigoration of the mind, a tempering of intuition, and somehow, the negotiation between the two spaces: deliberate, calculated creation, and making without over-thinking. Encouragement, friendship, space, time, and experimentation: all this is something that an art education offers.

In deciding to become a professional artist, there are certain conditions one must overcome: parents, for one, who are often ambivalent at the possibility of such an uncertain career path. Then there are your friends in your former life, the people who work 9 to 5 for a corporation, or a small business, or offer financial, legal or medical services. Their lives suddenly stop looking like yours. In their everyday life, there are people to call when something goes wrong, there are handbooks and seminars, there is a desk with a phone on it,

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a way to be responsive to the rapidly changing social landscape we find ourselves in. The world is in flux, and contemporary artists should think of themselves as “first responders,” flexible and fluid enough to be aspirational, process-oriented, collaborative, and create spaces for the fundamental role culture plays in enriching everyday life.

According to Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands,

Embarking upon an artistic career is a little like a

choose-your-own-adventure book: each decision leads to a range of options that, in turn, become puzzles and conquests, alleys and highways, windows and doors. You get lost, only to find yourself again, and the path is usually unmarked: a map of tantalizing possibilities and many directions.

In the fall semester, I had the pleasure of working with the graduating class of 2012. They are equipping themselves for the formidable challenges ahead, making a space for themselves in Houston and elsewhere. It is important that they be encouraged to continue imagining toward whatever it is that has yet to take shape: defining the fuzzy contours, sharpening their criticality, and continuing to fine tune their own ambitions and ideas.

Jenni Sorkin

…art is a useful device to measure a more general consciousness of the state of global relationships today and to help us collectively think beyond them. In this sense, art is more than “the thing itself” of the artwork but a systemic form of imagining from out of the conditions at hand towards something that is not yet formed. This imagining might be connected to what has already been imagined and failed, but it begins from the ground around it...*

* Charles Esche and Maria Hlavajova, “Former West: Introductory Notes,” www.formerwest.org. Accessed January 28, 2012.

THE ARTISTS

Bojic

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I explore perception and speed and the acceleration of

constructed messages. My goal is to understand how

communication at different speeds affects human cogni-

tion. Ultimately, my desire is to find new, creative and

imaginative, ways to channel my research as I visualize

data through new media and explore interactivity between

a viewer and an artifact.

My concentration on perception, speed, and acceleration

expands on design systems and esthetical experience

through practical research in history, theory and philoso-

phy. Through my work I want to raise the consciousness,

sensitivity and conviction of my audience.

Danilo Bojic

Perception Visualization: Ornamental 2010 (36” x 108” x 11”) Mix Media: Acrylic Sheets and Frost Vinyl. Credit: Collection of Vera B. Bojic

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Narrative Sequencing: Journey 2011 (3:00 min.) Media: QucikTime Movie Credit: Collection of Vera B. Bojic

Perception Visualization: Ornamental 2010 (36” x 108” x 11”) Mix Media: Acrylic Sheets and Frost Vinyl. Credit: Collection of Vera B. Bojic

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The Lorica, Chapter IV (Water), page 69 2010-Present (8.5” x 6” detail) Media: digital illustration

Closson

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Comic books and graphic novels are intimate objects with

a ready social dynamic, suitable for assembling architec-

ture at once nostalgic and culturally elegiac that bridges

mimetically between artist-writer and audience. Much of

what popular narratives explore can be found exemplified

in aspects of day to day culture, such as societal, moral

and political perceptions. Comics and graphic novels, as

established tools of entertainment in mainstream American

culture, are well suited for disrupting or reinforcing majority

perceptions through this specialized form of subversion.

Narratives are a kind of social sculpture capable of shap-

ing the perceptions of those who view or read them. They

are capable, without being didactic or propagandistic, of

grafting new ideas to extant ones in a way that alters the

scope of apparent possibilities. Narratives provide a way

of seeing- of presenting outside concepts and situations

to the mainstream, with solutions for the integration of new

information into the collective consciousness.

Ted Closson

The Lorica, Chapter II (Chess), page 162 2010-Present (8.5” x 8” detail) Media: digital illustration Credit: Collection of Vera B. Bojic

Forray

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Sebastian ForrayI am interested in drawing as both a private, hermetic act

of discovery, as well as one that connects me to the world

outside the private realm of the studio. One of my current

working methods begins with intuitive mark marking (right

brain), automatic and as free of conscious symbolizing

as possible. This is the action of drawing devoted to the

object of drawing—the conscious line Twombly speaks

of—simultaneously a record and a product. Through reen-

gagement with the other (left) half of the brain, I reorganize

the information produced in order to find the tipping point

between the two sides (conscious/unconscious), which

is ultimately what I am interested in exploring. Outside the

studio, my work is directed to collaboration and curatorial

work. This takes a variety of forms, including converting

my studio into an exhibition space (Bluffer Gallery),

organizing the work of local and foreign artists in other

spaces, and collaborative efforts through groups such

as Sketch Klubb.

Untitled 2011 (7.125” x 10”) Media: Graphite on paper

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Collabo Sebastian Forray & Yeh Hsuan-Fu 2010 (11.625” x 8.25”) Media: Watercolor and ink on paper

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Community Quilt 2011 Media: Vinyl banner material, 3 mil. cal-endered adhesive vinyl, brass grommets, sewing thread.

Garrett

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My work examines the visual grammar of the urban land-

scape, and in particular, the semiotic relationship between

the structural form of environmental signage and its

message. The methodologies I use are heavily influenced

by my affinity for urban visual culture and vernacular

design—a love that is deeply rooted in my suburban rear-

ing and early professional career in the “Mom and Pop”

sign industry.

In conjunction with my explorations of signage, my

practice focuses on the visualization of ephemeral pro-

cesses—the tracings or by-products of human existence.

Ongoing research will ultimately merge these two seem-

ingly disparate investigations of culture: the semiotics of

signage and the visualization of ephemeral process as I

seek to map the urban landscape within the context of a

community’s economic, political, and/or social constructs.

Lisa Garrett

Urban Decay 2011

Hook

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Steven HookI make mixed-media collages, paintings and video on

canvas. In the collages I include gouache, acrylic and

paper using contradictory methodologies through layered

brush strokes, painted text and scissor-cut paper. My aim

is to confuse depth, playing with the tension of immediacy

of paint and slowness of paper collage. The product is

my own visual language poetry. In oils on canvas and

with graphite or charcoal on paper, I use various formalist

methods, often layering renderings of figures over words

and landscapes. With both the collages and drawings I

remove and obscure most words and figures until compre-

hension of them becomes difficult; I want to obstruct the

audience from seeing everything immediately. Cat 2011 (11”x14”) Media: Graphite on paper

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Ideas 2011 (48”x48”) Media: Goauche on paper, acrylic on canvas

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IRMA: Infra-Red Musical Activity 2009-2010 (60”) Media: 3D rear-projection television, Microsoft Kinect, Mac Mini running Processing and Max/MSP Courtesy of the Texas Learning & Computation Center, Houston, TX

Ivy

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Chuck IvyI consider myself a research artist, developing rules,

frameworks and systems whereby I investigate media

and culture. Through a balance of algorithmic process

and personal aesthetic, I synthesize video, generative

photography, cut-up texts, sound collages and other New

Media art often stemming from appropriated materials. My

interest in these methods originates, in part, with the early

tape-loop audio moirés of Steve Reich and the culture

jamming collage work of the band Negativland.

One of the themes often explored in my work is obstruc-

tion or interference with the normal perceived flow of time.

I may compress scenes from a movie down into a single

still frame by mathematically averaging them together, or

stretch minutes of a song into hours so that any sense of

rhythm or change is almost imperceptible. Either method

becomes a means of exploration and discovery for me.

A Minute from Brazil Nº CX 2008 (22”x41”) Digital C-Print on metallic paper, mounted on aluminum Private Collection, Houston, TX

Kouamen

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Rosine KouamenMy photographic practice is born of the desire to commu-

nicate my forged identity within the West African Diaspora.

I illustrate personal and collective narratives that are

compiled from my childhood to the present, which are

meant to reflect the nostalgia of a vibrant culture through

my artwork. Narratives, whether true or imagined are an

important and intrinsic part of how identity is formed.

In other words, identity is a series of narratives some-

times shared by or with others, that aid in the creation of

communities and help to create a short-hand for culture,

through symbolism that people identify with like a flag,

food, music, and even memories. As a result, I endeavor

to capture the nostalgia of culture through my artwork. In

this series, I attempt to capture the fluidity of culture and

its lack of a constant.

Kris Lambi, Cameroon 2012 (15”x15”) Media: Inkject Print / Photography

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Yassine Alao, Gabon 2012 (15”x15”) Media: Inkject Print / Photography

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Schematic for Giant Multitron 2012 (5”x4”) Media: Graphite on Paper

Leduc

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Natali LeducI create objects and situations as solutions to real and

imaginary problems, with a fondness for contraptions

and puppet shows that involve fire and real animals. The

contraptions romanticize the archetype of the amateur

inventor, who works with rudimentary knowledge and

avid curiosity. Mostly impractical, the contraptions allude

to needs or desires pertaining to the imaginary realm,

where humor and absurdity start to make sense, where

they become pure joy. The puppets also rely on humor

and absurdity; they blend in with reason to reach an odd

“normality”. By using dead and live animals as puppets, I

am aware of stretching the usual definition of puppet as an

object that is being animated, blurring the line between life

and death. Using animals as puppets also questions the

hierarchy of animals in a human-centric system and the

projection of human qualities onto the animal realm.

Schematic for Giant Multitron 2012 (6”x8”) Media: Graphite on Paper

McGrew

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Emily McGrewMy drawings and paintings are from photographs but

just as importantly memory. It is the memory of the place

that sustains my interest and that helps me define just

exactly how I feel about the subject or situation I depict.

I often make work about places I have traveled to. This is

because the unfamiliar landscape is often cloaked with

mystery to me. I have to orient myself, and am stripped of

all preconceived notions. It is akin to starting with a blank

slate, and there is something exhilarating about that. I am

equally compelled by the people in my life. I project on

them new (but I feel related) identities; they become char-

acters in my own, made-up play. This ambiguity sustains

me; I want to leave some of it up for interpretation. I would

like my paintings to do what I feel is normally so difficult:

to communicate deeply, honestly, even, unflinchingly a

view of a flawed, but salvageable world, and how our

awareness of it shapes our existence.

In the Bush 2011 (8.5”x11”) Media: Etching on Rives BFK

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Carbon Sink 2012 (72” x 92” x 2”) Media: Oil on Canvas

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then bow dingbat 2011 (6”x4”) Media: Found book page, cotton thread

Semtner

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Abi SemtnerMy work is an obsessive process of selecting and manipu-

lating familiar and domestic materials. Colors that signify

a personal memory are then color matched to paint, hand

picked cotton, embroidery thread and vintage parchment

paper are a few of the materials I use to create my mixed

media pieces. The measurable process and the finished

thing are equally important.

I am interested in handwork, gathering, sorting, collecting

and finding intrinsic historical objects. The idea that an

object could contain a history intrigues me. Tenuous and

vague memories take shape as I search for and use the

right object and a personal mythology emerges. Whether

true or fabricated, those memories then foster future work.

My work is rooted in turning personal events into a calm-

ing and meditative performance. The materials I carefully

choose and obsessively use directly respond to my history

and make each piece full of meaning.

She would always say “My Stars” 2011-2012 (5’ x 2’ x 4.25”) Media: Raw canvas, cotton thread

Tapscott

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M’kina TapscottAs an artist I critique conflicting views on African-

American life and existence; these include historical

accounts, and media portrayals. In my work I have

juxtaposed and contrasted themes of identity and

identification. Many of the works I create utilize different

materials from found and repurposed objects, to memora-

bilia. These materials are then sculpted around a specific

researched themes or concepts. Research takes the form

of self-immersion, reading, community involvement, and

activism. The subject matter of each body of work, the

materials and form the work will take are determined at the

conclusion of the research process. Sculpture, for me is a

fluid ever-changing genre that allows exploration of vari-

ous materials and methods.

Family 2007 (11” x 24” ) Media: hand-built raku with sound component

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Study in Texture 1 2009 (8.5” x 11”) Media: Collage on woven paper

This book was created in 2012 for the 34th University of Houston

School of Art Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition.

The typefaces used were Helvetica Neue Regular, Condensed Bold,

Medium and UltraLight. It was printed on white paper in color ink. The

cover of the book was printed in color on white paper stock.

This is a limited edition book consisting of 500 copies.

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTONSCHOOL OF ART