Date of Award

Spring 5-2-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Art

First Advisor

Abigail Lucien

Academic Program Adviser

A.K Burns

Abstract

Using ceramic, found objects, metal and wood, my practice is a meditation and questioning of care, efficiency, repair, structure and place. Architectural elements of support rendered in clay are the initial point of entry to give a soft, lived-in quality to a built environment that is often devoid of the mark of the hand and body. Imprints of the hand are left, and the objects are often deformed in ways to subvert the perceived functionality. The focus on ceramics centers around a play with the binary of soft and hard and the external changes that create its transformation. The work is installed in precarious ways that leave it subject to breaking and ruptures, but also the possibility to be reworked and repaired. Pulling pieces of the built environment specifically from the neighborhood I grew up in, in New York as a coastal city comes into focus. The site of water opens up questions about the future and our potential unpreparedness for a world that needs to function differently to adapt to rising tides and failing infrastructure. The site of home becomes an investigation into how development and internal change rupture ways of seeing and being in relation to place.

Available for download on Saturday, May 02, 2026

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