Language

English (en)

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2025

Author's School

Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts

Author's Program

Art

Degree Name

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)

Restricted/Unrestricted

Unrestricted

Abstract

How do we go about deriving meaning in the information age, when culture has replaced society, decentering religion? My art practice seeks to answer this with storytelling, specifically in how archetypes can connect mythology, history, and personal narrative to build a functional personal mythology. Through painting fantastical portraits collapsing the compositions of Christian iconography with contemporary motifs, the installations tell strange and humorous narratives. My thesis piece focuses on the marathon, in the context of the original myth of Pheidippides, the common misconceptions about this myth, the infamous 1904 St. Louis Olympic marathon, the 1978 Boston Marathon, and my experience training for the 2025 St. Louis GO! Race. My work typically does include some aspect of personal narrative, and while I consider this essential to the process, the final piece is meant to stand without it, open to interpretation. In this project, that aim was put to the test. After experimenting with the modularity of my works and sustaining an injury that inhibited me from completing the race, it was only through looking back on the strange, funny, and energetic piece as something I was no longer part of that I was able to recontextualize what I had experienced and find a new message within the marathon.

Artist's Statement

Townsend is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, pursuing a B.F.A. in studio art with a concentration in painting and a minor in writing. Her work explores worldbuilding, storytelling, and archetypes, along with the ways these narrative devices allow us to understand our own situations.

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