Barbie, brains and bricolage: Layered surfaces

Feeling the limitations of formal art techniques and stylistic approaches, women artists such as myself search for an art style and aesthetic of our own making. In my search for this, purpose gives way to action. I take an in-depth look at art theories which results further in a study that explores the creative bricolage art process. The study examines consciousness states as part of the dynamics of interdependent perceptions that occur between the tactile, para-physical mind/body chamber and the surface through the creator's cognitive, emotional and ego-oriented relationship with space, imagery, surface, and composition. A phrase coined by French philosopher, Claude Levi-Strauss, bricolage is a natural and diverse operational technique designed from binary concepts in human interactions with material/medium, falling together in 'an order for free' activity, from which emerge traces of 'a priori' experiences and/or openings to biological consciousness. Ten core paintings have been created using this technique and working with both traditional art materials and non-traditional personal objects. The paintings, consisting of ten layers each, with possible added computer graphics, will be available for review through a computer, generated portfolio, in stages or layers of the creative process, and will be presented as the creative part of the Project Demonstrating Excellence.;A book of field notes, written in the spirit of a grounded theoretical research methodology, accompanies the paintings. The notes, a documentation of a layered literacy that is apparent in each painting, will contain a description, interpretation, and analysis of ten core paintings produced, and will act as the contextual essay. This includes a review of the literature on the intellectual framework, "bricolage," which provides the underbelly of the creative process and the aesthetic nature of psychic flow. This provides one with a beginning guide for understanding the origins of physical impulse in relation to aesthetic representation and feminist art theory. The central theme of the paintings, mortality, corresponds with the recent and untimely death of my husband. Documenting this life-changing experience allowed me to participate and respond to the biological proliferation and interdependent integrity in the compositional elements more fully, accessing many layers of psychological and para-physical dynamics in the mechanics of creating the product as well as collecting and writing down the data. Using the creative framework of bricolage to present a sentimental, reflective interpretation of this life-changing experience has expanded my intuitive interpretation of the surface content, and conscious awareness of the interaction of the human psyche with the creative process and the evolution of a painting composition. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...