ABSTRACTTitle of Dissertation / Thesis: HONOR FARMChristopher P. Hoeting, Master of Fine Arts, 2004Dissertation / Thesis Directed By: Professor, Patrick Craig, Department of ArtMy artwork work focuses upon byproducts; byproducts of humans and byproducts as subject. My imagery picks up on the byproducts of society’s organization of human life, such as prison architecture and security devices. Honor Farm is a metaphor for the human environment, space, and location that creates containment. Through the exploration of containment facilities, prisons, and barriers Honor Farm emerges as the subject matter. Desire for the barrier obstructs the balance among mind, body, and spirit. My art embraces the living environment as a link between the physical and the cerebral. The communication between material and image drives my process. Material informs the paint and the paint informs the imagery. In the last two years as an artist, my language evolved in relation to materials, images, and concepts.HONOR FARMByChristopher P. HoetingThesis or Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Fine Arts2004Advisory Committee:Professor Patrick Craig, ChairProfessor Patrice KehoeProfessor W.C. RichardsonProfessor Foon Sham© Copyright byChristopher P. Hoeting2004iiTable of ContentsTable of Contents...........................................................................................................iiList of Slides.................................................................................................................iiiChapter 1: Material 1-2 Chapter 2: Image 3-4 Chapter 3: Concept (Honor Farm) 5-6 Bibliography 7iiiList of Slides1. Honor Farm A 8x8” Oil and Acrylic 20042. Honor Farm B 8x8” Oil and Acrylic 20043. Honor Farm C 8x8” Oil and Acrylic 20044. Honor Farm D 8x8” Oil and Acrylic 20045. Honor Farm E 8x8” Oil and Acrylic 20046. Honor Farm V 72x72” Oil and Acrylic 20047. Modesty Panels II 72x72” Oil and Acrylic 20048. Furlough 24x24” Oil and Acrylic 20049. Three Point Restraint 48x36” Oil and Acrylic 20041Chapter 1: MaterialThe process that I engage offers a greater understanding of material. My paintings document that process. True material relationship is a search of exploration and balance. The integration of the subject and formal elements of the paint create an overall gestalt for the art work. Abandoning the figure as subject led me to shed images and indulge in the physical. I feasted on the ritualistic process of painting and reacted to the material intuitively. The ritual movement of body and mind connect the physical through the brush to the paint. This intuitively opened my vocabulary to a more poetic painted mark. Attacking the surface with force, I became enlightened through the articulation of the painted mark. Love of the art object controlled my impulse to return the image to the picture plane. The shift in my palette developed visual vocabulary and material exploration. I reduced the color with white. This minimizing of the palette created breakthroughs in the organization of each painting. Composition grew out of the physical interaction with imagery. White variations shifted back to color with a congested result. The impulse to fill the space caused confusing and unclear compositions within the art work. Filling the space created an over abundance of information that confused relationships within each painting. It was apparent that my painting plays an important role in relationship to other elements, such as, open space and tighter restrictions on my palette. Clarity is created within open and linear areas to provide balance and proportion for each art work. I combined areas of painted information together to form new relationships. Through these I developed a clear understanding2of paint, which in turn opened up other media to my aesthetic. My understanding ofart making practices opened a new arrangement of surfaces and processes of material, such as, digital media and photo transfer. Process imbeds the mark with new and exciting visual results; I continue to explore this method of decongestion by reducing visual information.3Chapter 2: ImageMy imagery is derived from containment facilities, prisons, and barriers. I incorporate the use of imagery in a manner similar to Sergei Eisenstein’s montages. I am fascinated by Eisenstein’s use of nondiegetic inser t in the movie Strike. “A nondiegetic insert is when the filmmaker cuts from the scene to a metaphorical or symbolic shot that is not part of the space and time of the narrative (Bordwell and Thompson, 281).” The juxtaposition of imagery creates a relationship that is non-sequential and yet metaphorically narrative. In Eisenstein’s Strike the slaughter of the factory workers is intercut with the slaughter of a bull. The link between the physical and the cerebral create a montage relationship with the figure. This fascination with the sequencing returned me to the space containing the figure. This concern forenvironment led me in the direction of interior design and architectural elements. The cold and mechanical development of human spaces gave me an understanding of the divisions between the flesh, and the compartmentalization of human life. The output of human production dictates the principals of human intimacy, organization, and living. In every culture, classes are divided into certain environmental hierarchies based upon socio-economic status. My images stem from the impulse of location, dictated by class and region. My imagery picks up on the byproducts of society’s organization of human life, such as prison architecture and security devices. I collected, researched, and appropriated imagery to bring asynthetic nature back to the human mark. The nature of human production often removes the organic connection that ties back to nature. The repetition of this painting process is an attempt of reconnecting these contradictions into an object that4yields balance. It also carries the same concern of constraints set on painting since the birth of the renaissance, and the challenge of introducing new ways to paint in contemporary times.5Chapter 3: Concept (Honor Farm)Three Point RestraintThe pressing needle in my flesh,Delivers pattern and shape into the soil.Taking nature into an architectural transformation.Knowing