Date of Award

Fall 12-12-2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Art

First Advisor

Stephen Clark

Second Advisor

Vaughn Randall

Abstract

By definition, a “bolthole” is an animal’s escape or burrow; or, a person’s escape or place of refuge. It also connotes construction, building, even sculpture - relating proletarian materials to themes of working-class labor and the need for escape. Through sculpture, installation, drawing, and oil painting, Bolthole as a body of work examines power imbalance as a societal norm, and identity and subculture as a rejection of the influence of capitalist institutions. Animal symbolism is used in combination with figurative work and portraiture, directly comparing power imbalances between humans to those in nature; such as predator and prey, parent and offspring, and the intersection of humans and animals. When examining humans as animals, punk and skinhead culture become essential in connecting raw emotion and self expression to primal instincts, as an escape from capitalist systems.

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