Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-8-2022

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Art and Art History

First Advisor

Virginia Chavis

Second Advisor

Joshua Brinlee

Third Advisor

Nancy Balach

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

As a graphic designer pursuing degrees in both Art, from the College of Liberal Arts, and Integrated Marketing Communications, from the School of Journalism, the goal of the art that I create is for it to be seen by many and connect viewers to the messages that I am trying to get across through my work. Art is a form of visual communication, and as an artist, I am always looking at the world around me and seeing how art of all forms connects art to people.

Much how like art itself is used to connect people, for this thesis I wanted to focus on utilizing art and artistic elements to showcase the connection between art and how people view the world. Specifically, I wanted to focus on the human connection and use art to show how people are all connected to one another in multiple ways. Along with expressing human connection through digital art, I wanted my work to also connect the viewer to the art itself through the finished overall composition of all the portraits individually and collectively.

Each portrait is printed larger than life so that the viewer can examine all the details, and so that the piece as a whole holds a greater impact. For this project, size matters, as I wanted the viewer to feel surrounded by the individuals and enveloped in the Zoom call layout as if they were part of the conversation. Making it feel as if the viewer is a part of the piece helps amplify the idea that we are all connected to one another. I want the viewer to realize their own connection in relation to the people in the portraits even if they do not personally know the subjects.

I chose to showcase my work in a Zoom layout to bring attention to the worldwide event, the COVID-19 pandemic, that has both separated and united everyone. We were all isolated from one another and had an absence of social human interaction due to everyone being at home, but at the same time, we found ways to communicate and stay connected with one another. Zoom was one of the main tools used during lockdown to keep people in touch with each other.

Accessibility Status

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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