Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Academic Dissertation; Academic theses; Thèses et écrits académiques;

Abstract

The title of my Studio Thesis is Ascetic Progression. My paintings reflect asceticism because they involve a solitary, personal search. The search leads to the unknown, as in a silent, tidal progression. I do not want to paint the things that I know. I may use a certain type of imagery or structure repeatedly as one uses the same language in new composition to express new thought. I am painting blindly in a way. I say blindly, because I want to reach beyond what I know. I may learn it at a later time, but when I paint it, it is a mystery. I have asked a subliminal question. If the painting is good, the mystery answers, as a tide, remaining a further mystery and again answering. What the mystery of painting reveals may be of a technical nature, but more importantly and more excitingly, it is of a philosophical nature. My paintings are in this sense objects of meditation. They become a means of questioning the meaning of existence. The more I question, the simpler it becomes. One has to traverse complex terrain, however, to find it. It is simpler than a circle, simpler than a dot and infinitely more magnificent than I can imagine. What finally works best is to state simply that if nothing is true, then eveything [sic] is true. It is a sobering task to consider fearlessly the first part of this statement. One must be fearless to fully grasp it. When I do a good painting, I know more about something than I can say, because it is too simple and words are too complex. So in painting, I cannot paint it, but I can paint at it. It is a progression. The search and I are one. Within the search and the tide, I confront information: the influences of instructors, critics, other artists and their work, life in general, the janitors opinion, the pigeon on the window sill, ad infinitum. I will cast some of it away, accept some; old information may become obsolete and wash away in one of these tides and may wash in again at a later time in the light of new information. The ultimate truth is unchanging and simple far beyond simple. I must pursue that truth in the way I know best, -with color, light, form, texture, dimension, -with feeling, -with paint. The Studio-Thesis Exhibition, entitled Ascetic Progression, was held in the South Upper Gallery of the Communication Arts Center, University of Northern Iowa, from April 28 - May 9, 1980.

Year of Submission

1980

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Art

First Advisor

Shirley Haupt

Second Advisor

Allan Shickman

Third Advisor

Joseph M. Ruffo

Comments

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Date Original

1980

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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