Tilted. Iowa Research Online. University of Iowa. Halle Diane Siepman University of Iowa. Theses and Dissertations. Spring 2015

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1 University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2015 Tilted Halle Diane Siepman University of Iowa Copyright 2015 Halle Diane Siepman This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: Recommended Citation Siepman, Halle Diane. "Tilted." MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Art Practice Commons

2 TILTED by Halle Diane Siepman A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2015 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Sue Hettmansperger

3 Copyright by HALLE DIANE SIEPMAN 2015 All Rights Reserved

4 Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER'S THESIS This is to certify that the Master's thesis of Halle Diane Siepman has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art at the May 2015 graduation. Thesis Committee: Sue Hettmansperger, Thesis Supervisor Susan Chrysler White Anita Jung Ronald Rozencohn

5 To my dear, generous parents, Wayne and Elenor Siepman, who submitted my drawings in an art contest when I was eight years old, and who set an example by traveling extensively and helping the less fortunate. To Sue Hettmansperger, who encourages me to delve deeper. To Susan Chrysler White, who inspires me to create art. To Anita Jung, who is community-spirited. To Dorothy Johnson, who motivates me. ii

6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was only possible due to the extraordinary support of the faculty from the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa, especially Sue Hettmansperger, for her unwavering help and guidance, Susan Chrysler White, for her endless positive energy, and Dorothy Johnson, for her support and time, Ronald Rozencohn, for his poetic metaphors, Anita Jung, for her community zeal, James Snitzer, for his profound questions, John Dilg, for his sensitive and lovely palette influences, Laurel Farrin, for sending industry articles to read, and John Beldon Scott, for providing valuable feedback on my MA and MFA exhibitions. I want to acknowledge the following individuals: Karen Wachsmuth, for her ongoing support, Scott McNabb, for proofreading many research drafts, and Joshua McDevitt, for photographing my MFA work. I would like to thank the Graduate College especially Jennifer Teitle and Alex Schott who have spent many hours assisting me with professional development. Thank you to James F. Jakobsen and family for encouraging, supporting and rewarding graduate research and presentations. Without the Mildred Pelzer Lynch Fellowship, I would have been limited in my studio and art practice. Finally, I am thankful for the generous support of the Stanley Foundation and the Executive Council of Graduate and Professional Students, who made my dreams come true in Athens, Greece. Therefore, my greatest thanks go to the University of Iowa for making all of this possible. iii

7 PUBLIC ABSTRACT Bringing together the two disciplines of architecture and painting allow for a new way of thinking and creating that would otherwise not exist. Through this intersection, my research breaks from the constraints of traditional painting and develops an innovative approach to representing architecture through painting. It is important to re-examine architectural potential of one s environment and to construct different spatial compositions. This creates a new visual language for me; it reflects my passion for one-of-a-kind architecture. If an architectural construction starts from the ground up, then traditional painting starts with the upright canvas. In the style of architects who design blueprints, I work on flat surfaces parallel to the floor to allow for more freedom in expression. As a child who grew up in a very large family within a small house, I learned to appreciate large spaces. It is through this experience that I have focused my work on the interpretation of monumental structures. My project consists of painted panels positioned several inches from the wall. I examine interiors and exteriors of houses and buildings looking for, and visually creating, different design solutions. I consider buildings as imposed structures, so I started drafting ideal homes that led to my current work veiled architecture. These new drawings and paintings of architectural imaginings are covered with geometric shapes and parallel lines to emphasize constraints within architecture. And by extension, I call on the viewer to reimagine his or her world by examining architectural and geometric potential in the environment. iv

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES vi INTRODUCTION 1 TILTED v

9 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Installation view of Halle Siepman, Tilted, Installation view of Halle Siepman, Tilted, Installation view of Halle Siepman, Tilted, Installation view of Halle Siepman, Tilted, Installation view of Halle Siepman, Tilted, Installation view of Halle Siepman, Tilted, Installation view of Halle Siepman, Tilted, Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now, Detail of Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now, Detail of Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now, Detail of Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now, Halle Siepman, Veiled, Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations, Detail of Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations, Detail of Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations, Detail of Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations, Halle Siepman, Quiet Still, Detail of Halle Siepman, Quiet Still, Halle Siepman, Without Interruptions, Halle Siepman, Linear Consequences II, Detail of Halle Siepman, Linear Consequences II, vi

10 22. Detail of Halle Siepman, Linear Consequences II, Halle Siepman, Present For Awhile, Halle Siepman, Amphitheatre, Detail of Halle Siepman, Amphitheatre, Detail of Halle Siepman, Amphitheatre, vii

11 INTRODUCTION Living with seven siblings in a four-bedroom house, I questioned the organization of my physical surroundings. In my mind s eye, I rearranged the double bunk beds, I repainted the walls and I widened the windows. The love for architecture grew from wanting order, structure and privacy during my early childhood. I wanted to create a room of my own with infinite possibility. I considered architecture school, but chose to study painting and drawing instead, in order to create these architectural imaginings. Visually, I could open and alter the interior space surrounding me. My fascination with architecture and exact parallelism, especially experienced firsthand, also comes from my examining Classical Greek architecture. During the summer of 2014, I had a rare opportunity to revisit Athens. The Parthenon has been roped off since the seventies to the public. However, an architect authorized my entrance. So this time, I was inside the Parthenon looking out while sunlight, warmth, peace and jubilance encompassed me. This once-in-a-lifetime experience embodies my fascination with parallel lines, architecture and engineering feats. This is what I want to share with the viewer. Through the production of artwork, I am able to create and occupy my own architectural space. 1

12 TILTED Inspired by the precision of linear perspective as a mental construct, I explore the history of architectural thinking, from ancient sites in Greece to the pioneer Le Corbusier and the asymmetrical postmodern architecture of Frank Gehry, Santiago Calatrava, and Zaha Hadid. My artwork embodies first-hand experience of architectural space. Recently, I stood inside the Parthenon, ascended a medieval staircase, and was situated on the level surmounting the columns, in the open air of Athens. It is this type of unique experience that I want to share with the viewer: to allow them to navigate my paintings aimlessly until a personal memory is evoked. My architectural imaginations are therefore not only about architecture, but also about a viewer s perception and memory of moving through a particular architectural space. The conflict between passively living in architectural space and actively forging my own space is a vital theme in my work. As a child, I questioned my physical surroundings and departed from the experiences of growing up with seven siblings in tight quarters by drafting ideal homes in vast, open spaces. Drawing lines helped me define my role within an otherwise challenging realm. As Virginia Woolf needed her own room for writing, I needed mine for drawing. Pulling from this ideology, I use geometric forms to manipulate a fictive-painted space; creating artwork is my way of forging my own space. By extension, I call on the viewer to reimagine his or her world by examining architectural and geometric potential in the environment. To this end, I have developed a technique I call veiled architecture. Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright s Robie House, veiled architecture means using colorful parallel lines, often in swirl patterns, to metaphorically veil interruptive elements such as windows, 2

13 doors, and stairways that shatter or penetrate interior space. With paint, I mimic the effects of Wright s bold and innovative architectural style, one where rooms lead into each other seamlessly, with no doors, allowing for an abundance of light and flow. In all my work, I explore the human desire to seek emotional balance through the discovery of discernible patterns in our highly complex universe. I emphasize contrasts: balance and imbalance, planar focus and recession, patterns and deliberately disrupted organization, and articulated and disjointed architectural forms. These contrasts reference the same polarities that the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin cited in a stylistic comparison of Renaissance and Baroque art: linear, plane, multiplicity versus painterly, recession and unity. My intentions are to place lines of exact parallelism next to forms that move errantly to evoke a push-pull experience similar to what humans face when making difficult life choices. As was in my case, I looked for these patterns and discovered them as a child. I looked through the thick sides of our living room glass table and became fixated on what I saw: infinite parallelism and abstraction. 3

14 Figure 1. Installation View of Halle Siepman, Tilted, 2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Iowa, Levitt Gallery, Arts Building West, Iowa City, Iowa. 4

15 Figure 2. Installation View of Halle Siepman, Tilted, 2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Iowa, Levitt Gallery, Arts Building West, Iowa City, Iowa. 5

16 Figure 3. Installation View of Halle Siepman, Tilted, 2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Iowa, Levitt Gallery, Arts Building West, Iowa City, Iowa. 6

17 Figure 4. Installation View of Halle Siepman, Tilted, 2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Iowa, Levitt Gallery, Arts Building West, Iowa City, Iowa. 7

18 Figure 5. Installation View of Halle Siepman, Tilted, 2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Iowa, Levitt Gallery, Arts Building West, Iowa City, Iowa. 8

19 Figure 6. Installation View of Halle Siepman, Tilted, 2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Iowa, Levitt Gallery, Arts Building West, Iowa City, Iowa. 9

20 Figure 7. Installation View of Halle Siepman, Tilted, 2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Iowa, Levitt Gallery, Arts Building West, Iowa City, Iowa. 10

21 Figure 8. Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now, x 9, Enamel, Watercolor, Graphite on Panel. 11

22 Figure 9. Detail of Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now, x 9, Enamel, Watercolor, Graphite on Panel. 12

23 Figure 10. Detail of Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now, Figure 11. Detail of Halle Siepman, Reintegration For Now,

24 Figure 12. Halle Siepman, Veiled, x 5, Watercolor, Enamel on Panel. 14

25 Figure 13. Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations, x 9, Watercolor, Enamel, Graphite, on Claybord/Panel. 15

26 Figure 14. Detail of Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations,

27 Figure 15. Detail of Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations,

28 Figure 16. Detail of Halle Siepman, Architectural Imaginations,

29 Figure 17. Halle Siepman, Quiet Still, x 3, Watercolor, Enamel, Graphite on Claybord. 19

30 Figure 18. Detail of Halle Siepman, Quiet Still,

31 Figure 19. Halle Siepman, Without Interruptions, x 6, Watercolor on Panel. 21

32 Figure 20. Halle Siepman, Linear Consequences II, x 3, Enamel, Graphite on Claybord. 22

33 Figure 21. Detail of Halle Siepman, Linear Consequences II,

34 Figure 22. Detail of Halle Siepman, Linear Consequences II,

35 Figure 23. Halle Siepman, Present For Awhile, x 24, Enamel, Graphite, Watercolor on Claybord. 25

36 Figure 24. Halle Siepman, Amphitheater, x 30, Watercolor, Enamel on Claybord. 26

37 Figure 25. Detail of Halle Siepman, Amphitheater, Figure 26. Detail of Halle Siepman, Amphitheater,