Ashley Cozzetto BFA Photography Thesis Fall 2017

A Garden of One’s Own

My thesis project, A Garden of One’s Own, is a series of eight 11” by 14” unique photographic collages. By adding layers of imagery then subtracting them by scraping into the emulsion, rubbing away the paper, tearing, cutting, or the use of digital tools, mimics the thought process and the deterioration of memories. Like memory, certain things come to the foreground, clear and recognizable and some details are forced to the background, blurry and covered up by something else. Repetition in making or using the same bits of images over and over bring forth the idea of trying to remember something I am forgetting or will eventually forget. I have created an invented space that mimics the landscape as familiar yet different by constructing a visual reinterpretation of the natural world, turning it into something unnatural by manipulation. This project was initially inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia. Rather than a utopia, which does not exist, a heterotopia is an other place, a place that can be found in real life. They are places that mirror but distort reality, one example Foucault gives is a garden. Garden’s are stuck between wilderness and artifice. I see my thesis work relating to the idea of garden by the way I have modified and manicured landscape imagery to my taste and visual preference. I have enforced order and pattern, constantly adjusting and adding to the pieces, similar to how one would garden. By using uniform 11” by 14” sized pieces my goal was to allow the viewer to come closer and intimately investigate the work. Up close the viewer will notice the layered recognizable details in each piece, and the further away one gets the more the imagery morphs into something else, details fade away leaving only the light and dark aspects of composition to stand out. Similar to the way one would think back on a past memory, where tiny details can can disappear and you are only left with the bigger picture. This work as a whole is a metaphor for feeling like I am currently residing in an in between space, I am morphing and shifting much like how the garden and nature in general is constantly going through cycles. There is an uncertainty about my future, and it’s scary and exciting at the same time. In this work I wanted to reflect on my feelings of the unknown, and mediate through the act of physically making.

Kathryn Prater BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Fall 2017

Sarah Birch BFA Animated Arts Thesis Fall 2017

Ashley Cozzetto BFA Photography Thesis Fall 2017

Emily Schwartz BFA Illustration Thesis Fall 2017

Matt Rodenbeck BFA Illustration Thesis Fall 2017

Kendrick Corp BFA Painting Thesis Fall 2017

Emma Parry BFA Painting Thesis Fall 2017

Madison Clark Camcam BFA Painting Thesis Fall 2017

Jessie Siegel BFA Printmaking Thesis Fall 2017

Sarah Anderson BFA Creative Writing Thesis Fall 2017

Austin Salazar BFA Painting Thesis Fall 2017

Andrew Newell BFA Sculpture Thesis Fall 2017

Aaron Smith BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Fall 2017

Tanya Gonzalez BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Fall 2017

Ari Gabriel BFA Animated Arts Thesis Fall 2017

Hannah Schill BFA Animated Arts Thesis Fall 2017

Casey Finn BFA Intermedia Thesis Fall 2017

Valeriya Gayevskaya BFA Intermedia Thesis Fall 2017

Zachary Pescador BFA Video & Sound Thesis Fall 2017

Ben Glas BFA Video & Sound Thesis Fall 2017

Ivy Loughborough BFA Intermedia Thesis Fall 2017

Aidan Jung Bosanko BFA Intermedia Thesis Fall 2017