Browsing by Author "Ellerby, David A., committee member"

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Open Access
A personal symbolism
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1984) Ash, Lori Jean, author; Dormer, James T., committee member; Orman, Jack L., committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Lakin, Barbara L., committee member
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.
Open Access
A road: poetry in painted landscape
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1992) Haskins, David, author; Dietemann, David L., advisor; Yust, Dave, 1939-, committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Tremblay, Bill, committee member
Landscapes reflected through the passing of time, light that is real "now", is only a memory a second later. Those memories that catch my mind's eye are what I attempt to hold, to examine, to understand through the painting process. My paintings allow those memories to become real once again and revisited.
Open Access
A timeless vision
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1996) Niles, Kathryn M., author; Dormer, James T., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Mitchell, Carol A., committee member; Simons, Stephen R., committee member
Landscape and figure are timeless, universal, and venerable motifs that compel constant and continued examination. This group of works employs form, movement, and spatial relations that are elements evident in both themes. I approach my subjects with a history of memories, an awareness of my surroundings, and my psychological state at the moment. These portrayals of life as I experience it may, in a sense, all be seen as self-portraits.
Open Access
Building drawings with patterns of processed stereotyped motifs
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1982) Herbert, Frank L., author; Cody, Bruce J., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Lundberg, Thomas R., committee member; Williams, Ron G., committee member
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.
Open Access
Drawn and quartered: a bipolar frame of mind
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2001) Armstrong, Joel, author; Twarogowski, Leroy A., advisor; Turner, Ronny E., committee member; Voss, Gary Wayne, committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Getty, Nilda C. Fernández, committee member
I spent the past two years erasing the lines of drawing, dragging my feet over the boundary drawn in the sand, stretching the limits, both in the use of medium and the format of the final presentation. Some significant installation pieces preceded Drawn and Quartered and influenced its execution. Clothes Lines, my first installation, pinned all the senses of the viewers into the piece-visual and tactile with objects dangled in front of them, backyard sounds, sod, smell, and humidity. I gained a striking insight into my art from this work. I realized that I could take something very personal (a days worth of laundry)-and the viewers accepted it as their own personal stories. In other words, instead of them looking at my art, my art was looking at them. Emersion) the Sign of Jonah, my next installation, also invited the senses into the setting but did not dictate a landscape as conspicuously. It was grander in scale with over 200 wire fish, a 12-foot boat serving as a light source for the 30- by 4O-foot gallery, and gulf sounds and sand. It was a huge production that dealt, mostly, with memories of night-fishing as a child. Although I persistently unfolded and multiplied this imagery throughout the piece, the multiplication and duplication of images actually obscured the event portrayed by the installation. With this piece, I realized that I wanted my art to be sparser, give less direction to the viewer. That sparseness leaves spaces for the viewers to enter the installation, to participate in the work, to let the art tell their stories. I'm incited into a high level of activity by a mind that races past sleep that never rests until it's exhausted, until it has exhausted all analytical and absurd possibilities of an idea or an image. Typically, this mind-play intersects and merges with the vivid memories dwelling within me to drive me into a frenetic outputting of work. After Emersion) opened, however, I suffered from long episodes of depression in which I seemingly produced nothing at all. At odd moments, frenzied activity intersected these depressive episodes. Most mornings, though, it required effort to get out of the house. Keeping to the activities demanded from working at a full time job, and being a student, husband, father, and teacher overwhelmed me. After several panic attacks including losing my way home, I was diagnosed as bipolar (manic-depressive). Drawn and Quartered shares what it's like to live with a hypervigilant, restless mind-to look "normal" even "well-adjusted" on the outside, and feel oppressed and overwhelmed inside-to be drawn to both living hidden in shadows and noticed in spotlights. This piece was sensually sparse, even visually sparse as compared to my other installations. I invited the observer more than ever to participate in the art, but prescribed and directed participation less than ever. In Drawn and Quartered, without touching the art, the observers could see only the shadows of drawing; they could not even see the medium. In Drawn and Quartered, the observers themselves are drawn into the piece to discover the drawing from its shadows. As in my other installation pieces, art intersected life. Comments from observers and bystanders (what they told me in their own ways): Those who don't know, who offer platitudes, who become uncomfortable when they see a person's bipolarness overflow the dammed up recesses to be lived out loud, what happened to them? Some glimpsed behind the wall and gained some empathy. Many observers still kept their distance in art as in life. They did not touch, did not open up, did not understand. But those who know, who have experienced bipolarness, validated their experiences, told their own stories, made art of their own lives.
Open Access
Interior event
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1984) Bridges, Amy C., author; Dormer, James T., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Berland, John C., committee member; Orman, Jack L., committee member
My work is based on rooms I have entered, where a corner or objects on a table quicken and stimulate me visually. The way things are placed geometrically and the way light falls to alter and distort them becomes a phenomenon or event. That arrangement or event spells out something very personal; a culmination of reality shown as pure form. It is a unique quality found only there at that moment, which is made up of unrepeatable consequences. These forms perceived in a certain relationship are an inspiration to me, and I create an image stemming from my emotion to it.
Open Access
Mirage
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1997) Magada, Michael F., author; Dietemann, David L., advisor; Yust, Dave, 1939-, committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Turner, Ronny E., committee member
The results of my involvement with abstract form, subjective content, and referential imagery have evolved into my thesis work which is a series of landscape paintings collectively entitled Mirage. Thematically, the paintings are symbols of the daunting process of coming to terms with self and the world.
Open Access
Mysteriously speaking of the mysterious
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1986) Schilling, Eugene Allen, author; Dietemann, David L., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Levine, Frederick S., committee member; Coronel, Patricia D., committee member
As an artist, my work represents an esoteric, creative expression in terms of nonverbal, abstract communication. I intend to make use of certain aspects of abstract expressionism to convey my feelings through painting. These aspects represent personal thoughts and symbols. In so doing, I intend to bring a number of conceptual and visual stimuli together simultaneously. A primary concern is to take abstract expressionism to a new technical and conceptual level by using back-lighting as a principal element. In essence, this new element allows me to intensify the attention of the viewer.
Open Access
Neighbor-scape
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1981) Ambrose, Richard M., author; Cody, Bruce, advisor; Twarogowski, Leroy A., committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Orman, Jack L., committee member
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.
Open Access
Non-objective, two-dimensional, multi-planar space via line, form and color
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1979) Radding, Rosanna, author; Dietemann, David L., advisor; Orman, Jack L., committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Yust, Dave, 1939-, committee member; Kilmer, Rosemary, committee member
Transcendence of the inherent flat orientation of a two dimensional format and interrelation of opposites are the major objectives of my work. Visual references are extended through line, color and shape enabling one's eye to negotiate through, over and around shapes, both positive and negative, and to perceive the multi-level penetration of space. Line, color washes and calligraphic motifs in relation to the unprimed canvas on which they are painted break-up, dissolve and make fixed forms transparent for other forms lying behind them. The painting surface involves a multiplicity of moving form. The entirety is in motion seldom allowing the viewer to rest on any one visual point. The longer one looks the more one sees.
Open Access
Origin and expansion
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Vaeth, Sarah R. J., author; Simons, Stephen R., advisor; Dormer, James T., advisor; Pressel, Esther J., committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member
This work has its source in the internal landscape, constructed out of memory, dream, psychological propulsion and inhibition. It is fundamentally my autobiography, in which I use the language of pictorial space to create a text of the mind. The work encompasses two series, called Wing and Stone and Water. These are differentiated by physical processes and by formal qualities. Both are conceptualized as an elucidation of my own psychological terrain. Throughout the work runs this vein of thought: that I am pushing forward from a ground prepared in childhood. My work is an examination of this liminal confrontation.
Open Access
Resonance of awe
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Keith, Julie Anne, author; Dormer, James T., advisor; Simons, Stephen R., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Harding, Blane, committee member
My art is a visual expression of my intimate relationships to family and my surroundings. It is a search to unite the dichotomy of self and other, and a seeking out of the divine. Using landscape as subject matter I strive to create a visual vocabulary with line, shape, color, and movement to express a universal and spiritual way of seeing.
Open Access
The Putnam River stories: blankets from 1984 to 1987
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1987) Trottmann, Robert Bruce, author; Lundberg, Thomas R., advisor; Coronel, Patricia D., committee member; Crow, Mary, committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Levine, Frederick S., committee member
The blankets are about birds, rivers, deer, and sticks. They are about the stages: life, death, birth, and rebirth. They describe walking crippled and not walking at all, fences, stairways, barriers, and protection. They represent covering up, exposure, enclosure, and warmth. The blankets are hideouts, places of escape. Creating a sacred space, the blankets promote mystical awareness, magical experience, and a realm of preciousness. Their process of creation is ritualistic, as is their use. Ritual use augments the magic, promotes transformation, and induces transcendence. Unifying the physical and nonphysical, the blankets serve the body and the mind. It is important that the blankets offer hope. So they may be personally and socially enlightening, they must contain tremendous sadness, pain, and images of death and loss. Through repose they embody wholeness. Pictorial images on the blankets are created with embroidery. The process of embroidery is technically simple and proportionate to the construction requirements of the blankets. With embroidery I create symbols of personal and universal origin to contact essences. These symbols also explain and contact the past and present either metaphorically or directly. The blankets are an expression of values and a confirmation of social responsibility. Within the blankets issues and questions regarding time, states of consciousness, location, domesticity, health, aging, and interpersonal relationships are personified. Through the interaction and exchange between myself, needle and thread, and ground cloth, there results an endorsement of things made by hand. Because it is ancient, the technique of embroidery and hand sewing, with its requirement of extended contact with the materials imbues the blankets with an energy which can and does affect users of the blankets. Being made by hand, the blankets promote the power and mystery of touch and connect the blankets with the larger forces which created the hand. The blankets are the result of natural forces. They are organic. They are born, are now alive, and eventually will die. Cloth and threads are familiar to everyone. Both are essentially universal. I select materials with great care using intuitive processes. Color, weight, texture, thickness, and tactile responses are vital considerations for me. Due to the familiarity of the materials the blankets are capable of speaking to a large and diverse audience. The blankets may accurately be called shrouds or robes. The dynamics of their movement in use is contingent on the willingness, curiosity, and imagination of the user. The blankets' vitality is fully expressed when adorned by a user. The blankets may be sat under, slept with, lain upon, or wrapped around. Their posture, in use is dependent on a person's body, alive or dead. If the blankets cannot be used in life, they are viable as shrouds. It is the mystical, ritualistic, and transcendent power of the blankets that attracts and propels me in exploring new possibilities within this traditional format.
Open Access
Thought-sounds and mustard jars
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1984) Sharkoffmadrid, Margaret Ann, author; Dietemann, David L., advisor; Yust, Dave, 1939-, committee member; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Twarogowski, Leroy A., committee member
These works exist in order that I may manifest my internal "thought-sounds." The vertical bands and the resonant stains which connect and/or isolate them are the means I have chosen to communicate about sensation, emotion, thought, humanness, and time past and present. The selection of every color is a critical process, as each is chosen for its emotive quality and its tone. Through many additions and judgments each color is achieved, and consequently an acknowledgment is due to the role played by the mustard jars.
Open Access
Toward the fecundity of being
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2002) Butler, Joshua E., author; Dormer, James T., advisor; Simons, Stephen R., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Boyd, James W., committee member
The images represented here, both abstract and representational, deal with the question of how the concept of "self" relates to "Being" (as with Heidegger) through the study of the interrelation between the artist, materials and the subject matter. The premise for the early nonobjective and surreal experiments was the assertion that the state or qualities of being that an artist brings directly and uninhibitedly to the artists materials would be found as content in the image that resulted from this relationship. With these images I was interested in invoking a heightened, rich visual presence that reflects a sense of being on the edge of life and death. It seemed that this would be the place of being where "self" would most readily be revealed. While nothing "substantial" was found, it began to occur to me that what was most interesting about the process was that moment or series of moments where "I" was sublimated into the creative process within the materials and subject matter. During this time a transition began to occur with my image making. I began to understand "self" as a function of relationships in general. The peculiar aspect of the relationship between artist, materials and the subject matter is that it is a relationship within which all involved are transformed. The artist grows and changes through the process, the materials are transformed from raw materials into living visual language, and the subject matter ceases to function as a consumable object "it" (the land for example) and instead becomes, in Martin Buber's words, "thou" that now functions as the beloved. (It seems ironic thate one answer to counter-consumerism is not necessarily overt activism, but rather, educating people to be studio artists.) While I was in the process of understanding all of this I began to work more and more from everyday life. Our human experience of Being is by its nature relational in that we are what (and how) we are engaged in at any moment. The nonobjective work was becoming like a song stuck in my head. I was finding in the World, as it offers itself for investigation, a bottomless well of spectacular visual information. In contrast, the investigations into my internal environment were exciting at first, but the process and imagery was fast becoming repetitive and boring. The still ongoing series of plant and garden images are a result. My new thesis is that if my being-in-the- world as an artist is relational and I know that the quality of being that I bring is reflected as content, then as an artist, I can choose what type of relationship to participate in. In doing so I take responsibility for both the contents of my life and of the images because they reflect and inform each other. The land, and gardens in particular, gives me an opportunity to reconnect with my original Nature. Gardens are especially interesting because they are the work of directly participating in Nature by bringing the experience into our urban environment. This series of images involves bringing the materials to the gardens and making marks that are a direct response to the interrelationship of my being and the being of the environment as a whole. As such, I choose to participate in the fecundity of Being.
Open Access
Tradition & interpretation
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2003) Lennartson, Kari, author; Yust, Dave, 1939-, advisor; Sullivan, Patrice M., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member
I am of the belief that the human mind is hardwired to create order out of disorder. I begin each work with a rhythmic web of marks, lines, and colors which stretch across the painting surface. It is important to integrate the unexpected into my work: with every misstep which occurs, there is an opportunity to take the image in new directions. As I am interested in creating a varied and complex surface, I work back and forth between the addition and subtraction of materials. I liken my subtractive process to the excavation of earth which an archeologist undergoes when searching for remnants of the past. Thematically, my artwork echoes several motifs found within Old Norse folk art and literature, appeasing a deep yearning for other worlds, remembered and imagined; nostalgia is a potent force within modernism. Motifs utilized include valkyries, telemark skiing, viking longboats, and the spiritual in nature. Archeologist Marie Louise Stig Sorensen relates, "material culture is at the same time active and pliable, meaningful but not absolute." The historical and mythological motifs explored within this body of work recognize the limitations and malleability of interpretation in regards to both Scandinavian historiography and contemporary art. The imagery which emerges from my artistic process owes its inspiration and existence to the initial marks, lines, and colors, and to all of the subsequent layers in between.
Open Access
Twenty-four prints
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1989) Hickel, Joseph Scott, author; Orman, Jack L., advisor; Ellerby, David A., committee member; Williams, Ronald G., committee member; Dormer, James T., committee member
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.