Download Entire Thesis Statement (656K PDF Document)

ABSRACT: One, And The Same
by Daniel Marinelli

This thesis supports the Master of Fine Arts exhibition at the B. Carroll Reece Museum, East Tennessee State University, from March 18th through May 1st, 2008. The exhibition is comprised of fourteen sculptures, which are presented on pedestals or mounted on the wall. The exhibition presents the artist’s experimentation and exploration into a variety of different materials, namely wood, steel, paper, linen thread, and milk paint. Topics discussed are the influences, techniques, and methods directly relating to the work. Included are preliminary and detail images as well as a complete catalogue of the thesis exhibit.

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction
Calvin Seerveld defines art as a “sensuous metaphor, a human act – with or without words – harnessed to tell a story in sight-or-sound imagery that asks to be understood in kind, as a sensuous metaphor” (10). It is with this role in mind that I have attempted to capture in my sculpture an insinuation of a narrative, story, parable, or metaphor. I echo Martin Puryear concerning the “value of the referential quality of art, the fact that a work can allude to things or states of being without in any way representing them” (“Martin Puryear” 2).

To aid in the suggestive quality that I desire my work to evoke, I have altered, combined, and presented common materials (wood, steel, paper, thread) into a format that, hopefully, stirs a certain sense of familiarity, either to the materials themselves, or to the alluded content.

The stories, or metaphors, that are the catalysts to my work are not necessarily directly personal or autobiographical. I have realized that the content at the core of this work is an attempted focus on the natural and inborn traits and attributes of each individual, the “everyman”, and the human condition. This idea has been in the forefront of my mind recently due to the fact that my wife is with child and is due in less than a month with our firstborn. I eagerly await the arrival of our child and anticipate the personal uniqueness. At the same time I am compelled by and reminded of the universal similarities that he or she will also own: memory, desire (appetite), shame, belief, conscience, grief, hope, joy, sensitivity, and fear. I view these intrinsic features as transcending the confines of gender, race, or age. This view was the catalyst for the title of my thesis exhibition. This thesis discusses the inspiration, method, technique, education, and, above all, the precedence I place upon the work itself and the work of the hand...