Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Department

Art

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Abstract

My body of work centers on verbal and nonverbal communication, and how meaning can be conveyed, distorted, or withheld. Since living in Kansas, I’ve struggled to understand the layers of Midwestern niceness, as I am more accustomed to the directness of the East Coast. Both ways of communication are valid, but often go past each other when put together. In Kansas, East Coast bluntness can appear callous. I've felt more like a Nor’easter, than merely a Northeasterner– disruptive and maybe a little difficult.

The difference has me tuned in to the colloquialisms around me, to phrases that slip by relatively unnoticed by Kansans. I have turned them into signs held up by forged brackets, or covertly installed into their contextual environment. With my fridge door and giant cast iron fridge magnets, titled “Tell Me How You Really Feel”, the viewer can respond directly or in- directly, with an individual word, powerful by itself, or combine words into bad poetry.

I have noticed how people play games with communication to try to gain an advantage, and that communication may not be enough, like during Monopoly. When conversation deteriorates, and cooperation turns into conflict then collapses under an unfair system, the result is a game ending board flip.

Process is central to my work; casting requires time intensive labor and technical ability. I also use computer-aided manufacturing as a tool, blending technological processes with traditional sculptural methods. Both hold equal weight, although different. I like to contradict the intensity of the process with my humorous pieces. I intentionally oppose material and form, casting soft things into rigid metal, or by changing the scale to make small things larger than life. I create objects designed to have an outsized importance in otherwise ordinary life. My pieces highlight the dichotomy without taking themselves too seriously.

Keywords

Art, Sculpture, Iron, Humor, Sunshine

Advisor

Tobias Flores

Date of Award

Summer 2026

Document Type

MFA Portfolio

Rights

© The Author

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