Date of Award
Spring 6-1-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Painting
First Advisor
Yasi Alipour
Second Advisor
Amy Sadao
Third Advisor
DJ Hellerman
Abstract
Relief holds both an emotional and a physical connotation; both the lifting of a burden or emotional baggage and the description of an object with forms that protrude from a planar surface. This thesis explores the ways in which these connotations can co-mingle and inform each other through the creation of hand-carved wooden reliefs. The relief becomes a vessel through which an emotional connection can be formed between viewer and maker by way of a shared sense of labor.
Wood, a material grown from the earth, is transformed into an entirely human-created form, the car; embodying the just-as-human desire for freedom and individualization through the construction of a privatized space, perfectly designed to accommodate human desires. The car can thus act as a bridge between private and public spaces and model a division of the interior and exterior both physically and psychologically.
Through short vignettes of personal narratives situated within a discussion of their larger cultural implications, I hope to understand how vulnerability, shame, and empathy can be used to forge a connection with a viewer through their interaction with an art object.
Recommended Citation
Feltman, Aaron, "Sweet Relief" (2024). Masters Theses. 1317.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1317
Creative Commons License
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