Date of Award
Spring 5-10-2026
Author's Department
Graduate School of Art
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
I examine the blurred boundary between labor, leisure, and play within contemporary art. I propose that looseness and apparent effortlessness can function as critical positions, and question the enduring belief that artistic value is tied to visible effort. Drawing on theories of labor and value, as well as casualist painting, my project, Here, a while situates art-making within broader expectations of productivity and virtue. The work that accompanies the text consists of paintings that curve, slouch, and rest against the wall, refusing uprightness and fixed form. Materials such as tie-dyed fabric and silver leaf complicate distinctions between high and low, effort and ease, decoration and seriousness. Maze-like paths recur as a way of thinking through wandering and getting lost. By embracing indeterminacy and informal gestures, I am repositioning art as a site where value emerges through play, drift, and embodied experience.
Language
English
Program Chair
Tiffany Calvert
Thesis Text Advisor
Lisa Bulawsky
Thesis Text Advisor
Meghan Kirkwood
Faculty Mentor
Lisa Bulawsky
Committee Member
Joe deVera
Committee Member
Jack Risley
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Zachary T., "Here, a while" (2026). MFA in Visual Art. 41.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_visual_art/41