Date of Award

Spring 5-30-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Painting

First Advisor

Craig Taylor

Abstract

Through re-imagining the radical emotional, psychological, political, poetic, and story telling power of food, I use the theater of life to set the stage of the table. Conjuring discussion with Chronos and Kairos, the meal is placed within the liminal; where all bodies are simultaneously present and absent. The painting is as much about life as they are about death. Investigating contemporary life and myth making, I explore the mapping of culture through the objects we consume. I view the tablescape as a place of narrative portraiture. Sometimes the table acts as a shrine, other times a commons or a stage. Intrinsic to this body of work are Jane Bennet’s Vibrant Matter: Political Ecology of Things , Manny Farber and Helen Molesworth Termite Art, and lastly Joseph Campbell’s works within cross cultural anthropology and mythology. Maximalist, feminist, and unapologetically colorful and boisterous A Slice of Life: Theater of the Dinner Table for it all.

Included in

Painting Commons

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