DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/9FZC-BN45
Defense Date
2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Fine Arts - Glassworking
First Advisor
Jack Wax
Abstract
When Pliny the Elder wrote Naturalis Historia around 70 A.D., the idea of natural history contained and connected biology, geology, and mineralogy with the history of painting and sculpture. Art was an extension of the natural world as its materials were extracted from plants, animals, and, particularly, mined and quarried pigments, stone, and metals. In my developing body of work, Incidents of Naturalis Historia, Reconstructed, I combine wasps’ nests, architectural fragments, and other found objects excavated from my surrounding environment with elements of glass that resemble lichen, crystallization, and geologic specimens. These works simulate artifacts of an alternative history; one in which the divergent histories of art, craft, biology, and geology are again united.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
June 2013