Date of Award
Spring 5-7-2025
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
My artistic practice is about change itself. I am inspired by the doubling and layering effects that came out of Surrealist Photography. Scale, fracture, and doubling are intentional components of my process. I combine those methods to create complex works of art, focusing on the untamable light that I hope to capture when making my images, which often are self portraits. Poetry is an integral element of this thesis text as well as my art making process. Through my poetic work I hope to offer my audience a glimpse into how I see and experience the world. This thesis text takes readers on a journey through several key elements of my practice: from the importance of chance in how I make photographs, to my use of scalar confusion, to the role of fracture and fragment, and finally, to my focus on doubling effects.
Language
English
Program Chair
Tiffany Calvert
Thesis Text Advisor
Patricia Olynyk
Thesis Text Advisor
Monika Weiss
Faculty Mentor
Patricia Olynyk
Committee Member
Patricia Olynyk
Committee Member
Meghan Kirkwood
Committee Member
Cheryl Savage Wassenaar
Recommended Citation
Berger, Sam, "Transmutation" (2025). MFA in Visual Art. 28.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_visual_art/28
Included in
Fine Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Other Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons, Poetry Commons
Artist's Statement
My artwork is a mirror of myself and my life experiences, a lens through which I investigate and continually attempt to understand all of the layered aspects of myself. Poetry is an important element of my artistic practice. I am an imagemaker and I strive to have my work engage with architectural spaces and viewers in photographic installations that come off the walls continuing to challenge how a photographic image can or will be presented.
There will always be more layers of myself to uncover and make artwork about. It is not about having answers but offering poetics about the process of getting to know oneself. I will never truly be able to understand myself or be at peace with change, I will just keep transmuting. My work reflects ‘me’ in the current moment that I create it, and then the moment passes, and the reflection changes.