Escaping Intersections

This thesis is an extended artist statement that focuses on a selection of paintingsand drawings created within the Master of Fine Arts program at The George WashingtonUniversity. These recent paintings are concerned with overwhelming fears of theunknown future or the evolving constructions of social control, such as surveillance. Inorder to resist persistent doubt or apprehension within monitored public space, theseworks encourage viewers to be attentive to present social space, and to evaluate theunspoken dialogue and tension that exists between private and public consciousness.These private moments of personal thought or mental isolation, within familiar spaces,provide significant opportunities for self-reflection as they grant the possibility oftemporary mental escape in communal spaces. In the presented works, the compositionsoften provide close-up views of industrial objects and systems that assist in the creation and function of certain places. The forgotten complexity involved within our familiarenvironment confronts the viewer, proposing a reexamination of the simultaneity of ourphysical and mental systems, as their interdependency is both constant and unavoidable.

Author

• O'Connell, Maureen Quinn

Language

• en

Keyword

• painting
• drawing

Date created

• 2010

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Fine Arts

Degree

• M.F.A.

Advisor

• Brown, Thom
• Obler, Bibi

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/2z10wq28m