Graduation Term

Spring 2026

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

School of Art

Committee Chair

John Miller

Committee Member

Brian Franklin

Committee Member

Albion Stafford

Abstract

This thesis exhibition, Reconciliation, examines how memory, loss, and lived experience shape personal identity over time. Through sculptural works composed of cast, blown, and hot-sculpted glass combined with mixed media, the exhibition explores the pressures that life events place upon individuals and the ways those pressures persist, transform, and become integrated into the self. The work considers identity not as a fixed state but as a continual process of negotiation between past experiences, present circumstances, and future possibilities.

Central to the project is the material analogy between glass and human experience. Glass, a material formed under extreme heat and pressure and susceptible to internal stresses, mirrors the psychological and emotional forces that shape human lives. Industrial forms such as vises, clamps, and faucets appear throughout the sculptures as metaphorical agents of pressure, restraint, and release, interacting with organic glass forms that suggest vulnerability, growth, and transformation.

Drawing from personal history—including family experiences, memory fragmentation, and encounters with loss—the work frames reconciliation as the act of confronting and harmonizing one’s past with the present. Rather than erasing past pressures, the sculptures propose that growth emerges through learning to coexist with them. Together, the works invite viewers to reflect on their own evolving identities and the enduring influence of memory on who we become.

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

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