Frozen Movement An Honors Thesis (HONRS 499) by Krystal Palmer Thesis Advisor Timothy Berg Signed Ball State University Muncie, Indiana April 2015 Expected Date of Graduation December 19, 2015 SpCo/t UnderqrcJ Thesis 1-]) e.'f89 Ab .Z4 stract ~Ol$ · P35 Following my journey through college as an Art Education Major, Frozen Movement delves into the depths of my artistic inspiration. Through the creation of a cohesive art exhibit using several artistic mediums, I displayed my deep connection to movement. In an effort to better explain the path I took to make personal discoveries and develop personal truths, I have compiled a set of six movement related artworks. Each artwork has its own artist statement, analysis, and explanation of how and why the artwork was created. All six analyses include pictures of the creation process and high quality photos of the finished pieces. Through each analysis it becomes more evident to the reader the impact and importance movement has had on my college career and future as an artist and educator, Frozen Movement has allowed me to learn the power of creative individuality and in turn given me the ability to share that knowledge with my future students. AcknowledKements I would like to thank Dr. Timothy Berg for advising me through this project. His encouragement and out of the box thinking helped me to reach new levels of self­ analysis and discovery during this extensive task. I would like to thank my art professors, Vance Bell, David Hannon, and Hannah Barnes for positively critiquing my work and guiding me through new and exciting media. I would like to thank Rebeca S. Wolfe for being my personal photographer and aiding in the documentation of my work. Finally, I would like to thank Richard, Bonita, and Anthony Palmer for always encouraging and supporting all of my artistic endeavors. Table of Contents An Introduction to Frozen Movement 1 The Dancer 7 Strings 11 Self-Portrait 19 Visible Musicality 23 Four 27 Unexpected 31 Exhibit Flyer 39 Exhibit Labels 40 Photos from Frozen Movement 41 Works Cited 45 An Introduction to Frozen Movement: Krystal Palmer's Senior Thesis Aesthetic. What is your aesthetic? Why do you create art? What is the purpose of this piece? Who influenced your choices of subject matter? Why are you going to school to be an artist? What could you possibly do with that? The above questions have all been presented to me at some point or another throughout my college career. People always expect me to be able to answer those questions and I could not, until now. When I was brainstorming ideas for my Senior Honors Thesis I found myself constantly returning to one particular question: why do I make the art that I make? As I continued to move forward with the project I began looking for repeated themes and ideas within my work. One thing I have learned from my participation in multiple studio classes and art history courses is that artists often create the majority of their artwork stemming _rr._"""!II_~~"""!'IIII_~" from one concrete concept that they repeat in different formats. For example, Andy Warhol, an artists from the Pop Art period, created repeated imagery commenting on celebrities and pop culture. In a Contemporary Art History class that I took with Natalie Phillips, I learned that there are two art forms, high art and low art. Andy Warhol used techniques from low art forms to create high art using pop culture imagery. All of his work is different and depicts Andy Warhol, Twenty·Five Colored distinctive objects and people, but the core idea of his work Marilyns, 1962, Acrylic on canvas, 82 x 66 1/4 Inches (208.3 x 168.3 em) always returns to his commentary on pop culture. Vincent van Gogh did a similar thing with his artwork. Based on research I completed while 1 creating lesson plans for my art education courses, I learned that the majority of Van Gogh's artwork was a reflection or comment on his mental illness and loneliness. In my artwork I discovered that I continually returned to an influence of movement. My background in dance has affected most, if not all the artwork I have created during my time in college. Movement is my concrete concept and one that I will most likely continue to incorporate in my career as an artist and teacher. As an art major, I am constantly pushed to reach further into myself and create work that is controversial, meaningful, and culturally relevant. What is interesting is that the more I am pushed to think further and plan further ahead in my projects, the less motivated I am to do so. Thanks to my time at Ball State and as a member of the art department, I have come to the conclusion that artists do not create art for others. Artists create for themselves, but it often relates to others. I do not create art for others, but I create it for myself as an escape. People can critique, discuss and dissect every artist. Artists can modify their work to be more balanced using the elements and principles of design. Artists can implement common practices and techniques to create "acceptable" artwork. However, if I have learned anything from being a member of an art community, it is that the artists who are the most successful are the ones who break the rules and create as a way to share their deepest, inner thoughts. Those artists are the memorable artists. Those artists are the ones we continue to study and admire throughout time. When I came to Ball State I was excited to be a part of the dance program, the art department, and the Honors College. Up until a month before school began however, I was preparing and planning to be a professional ballet dancer. I had trained for eighteen years and I had the abilities I needed to pursue a successful career in dance, but something was 2 holding me back. The societal pressure to be successful and earn money terrified me into choosing a different path. I decided to become an art teacher instead of a dancer because I felt an intense desire to be a part of the arts, but I also wanted a more reliable career in the future. When it came time to make a decision, I knew my passion for dance and art would cause me to choose careers where I was going to make very little money. I decided that if I were to become a teacher I would have the opportunity to inspire students to create in the classroom and that would be worth a lesser pay. I took every art class possible in high school and I have always had a passion for creation. I decided to become an art teacher because I felt that I could share my paSSion for the arts more vividly and in a more impactful way than I could from the stage. As an art education major, honors student, and dance minor I felt I could learn to educate and still be fulfilled each and every day. Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I think Ball State has a wonderful dance program, it was not for me. I did not register for any dance classes my second semester freshman year, and eventually dropped my minor. I felt myself spiraling, slowly becoming less interested in all aspects of school. My lack of personal expression and creative outlet was physically and mentally altering my ability to succeed. I could not figure out what was wrong until I was assigned an abstract self-portrait in one of my intra art classes. As I was creating this work I felt the need to incorporate some aspect of dance or movement into my piece in order to truly represent myself. My abstract self-portrait was the beginning of my formation into the artist I am today. Through the process of self-analysis and the creation of artwork like that in my exhibit, I began to understand how to express myself successfully as an artist. Without the physical existence of ballet in my life, I had to reach for other ways to excite and motivate 3 myself academically and personally. Ballet and movement had been such an important facet of my life for so long that I could not function without it, even though I was in a major devoted to self-expression. I began to create artwork that reflected the feelings I would get when I performed or participated in ballet class. I would physically incorporate movement into my work through the use of music or oversized canvases that required my entire body to move back and forth. I found myself imagining my paintbrush was an extension of my limbs and the marks I made on the page were a visual reminder ofthe way my arms or legs could move through space. I would use my experiences performing in ballets based on the classics to write about plays and novels we read in my honors classes. One of my honors projects was based on the influence of Asia in America and I physically performed a movement piece to explain my understanding of the content. By removing one form of creative outlet I discovered a completely new way to express myself. By incorporating movement into every aspect of my life I found myself progressing and positively moving forward in my life. Before I had been so discouraged by the pressure to fit the mold as an art student. I discovered that it did not matter if my artwork was controversial or made some huge political statement, as long as it meant something to me it was successful.