Date of Award

5-2021

Degree Type

Creative Project

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Art and Design

Committee Chair(s)

Woody Shepherd

Committee

Woody Shepherd

Committee

Fazilat Soukhakian

Committee

Holly Murdock

Abstract

Many people believe their memory works like a video camera, capturing and storing their experiences. However, memories can be manipulated or planted without us noticing. If this seems insignificant, consider the big consequences of false memory: although eyewitness identification of a criminal is often unreliable, it has an incredible power to sway a jury.1

My interest in studying memory and my introspective nature has led me to create this series of work—a visual collection of my experiences as a spectrum of color and shape. These pieces have been influenced by age, emotion, personality, and bias. With each piece, I have highlighted the things I remember, how I feel about the experience looking back, and how I think my memory of the event has changed. For example, in Queen Crab, I used an intense red to indicate a strong emotional reaction and sharp crystals to suggest a bit of danger. In other pieces, like Collecting Rocks, I use neutral colors and rounded shapes to communicate the stability and simplicity of that memory.

Footnotes:
1 Chris Rose & Victoria Beck, Eyewitness accounts: false facts, false memories, and false identification, Journal of Crime and Justice, (2016) 243-263.

Included in

Painting Commons

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