Catalpa, burdock, clover, worm

45 Pages·2016·7.15 MB·English

by  Emma Steinkraus

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Spring 2016
Catalpa, burdock, clover, worm
Emma Steinkraus
University of Iowa
Copyright 2016 Emma Steinkraus
This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3196
Recommended Citation
Steinkraus, Emma. "Catalpa, burdock, clover, worm." MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, 2016.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.we4inek6
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theArt Practice Commons
CATALPA, BURDOCK, CLOVER, WORM

by

Emma Wood Steinkraus

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 2016

Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Laurel Farrin
Copyright by

EMMA WOOD STEINKRAUS

2016

All Rights Reserved
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

Emma Wood Steinkraus

has been approved by the Examining Committee for
the thesis requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree
in Art at the May 2016 graduation.

Thesis Committee: ____________________________________________
Laurel Farrin, Thesis Supervisor

____________________________________________
Sarah Kanouse

____________________________________________
David Ratcliff

____________________________________________
Sue Hettmansperger

____________________________________________
Neal Rock
To Worms, Snails, Mom, Dad, Catalpa, Emmett, Burdock, Violet,
Alice, Alex, Dirt & Deer. I love you all.

ii
& dead the endless
procession & dead the
piles on the earth & dead
the marshgrass & dead
the prariegrass & dead the
downed dead trees
the trunks bent under,
snapped & frayed in death
weighed down w the weight
of the xcellent & living excess

Cody-Rose Clevidence

What is all this juice and all this joy?

Gerard Manley Hopkins
“Spring”

iii
PUBLIC ABSTRACT

This is a small collection of photographs of artwork made at the University of Iowa and
an accompanying artist statement.

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi
ARTIST STATEMENT .......................................................................................................1
CHIROLOGIA .....................................................................................................................2
ECO-OCCULT ..................................................................................................................13
CATALPA, BURDOCK, CLOVER, WORM ...................................................................23

v
LIST OF FIGURES

Figures Page

CHIROLOGIA
1. Statement ..................................................................................................................2
2. Reading in Bed .........................................................................................................3
3. Triptych ....................................................................................................................4
4. Panel 1 .....................................................................................................................5
5. Panel 2 .....................................................................................................................6
6. Chirologia ................................................................................................................7
7. After Masaccio .........................................................................................................8
8. Lady Dai...................................................................................................................9
9. Detail of Lady Dai .................................................................................................10
10. Emmett ...................................................................................................................11
11. Google Earth View of the Konza Prairie ...............................................................12

ECO-OCCULT
12. Camera Trap ..........................................................................................................13
13. Installation Shot ....................................................................................................14
14. Fawn ......................................................................................................................15
15. Spell for Bat ...........................................................................................................16
16. Spell for Swan (After Hilma Af Klint) ....................................................................17
17. Spell for Cicada .....................................................................................................18
18. Spell for Beaver ......................................................................................................19
19. Spell for Barn Spider .............................................................................................20
20. Throne for Ghost Bat at the Perth Zoo ..................................................................21
21. Double Swan ..........................................................................................................22

CATALPA, BURDOCK, CLOVER, WORM
22. Foraging ................................................................................................................23
23. Installation Shot ....................................................................................................24
24. Wild Violets ............................................................................................................25
25. Detail of Wild Violets ............................................................................................26
26. Catalpa ...................................................................................................................27
27. Detail of Catalpa ....................................................................................................28
28. Nine Stone ..............................................................................................................29
29. Grow ......................................................................................................................30
30. Roll Away ...............................................................................................................31
31. Foraging Backpack ................................................................................................32
32. Foraging Coat ........................................................................................................33
33. Installation Shot .....................................................................................................34
34. Deer Kill .................................................................................................................35
35. Detail of Deer Kill ................................................................................................36
vi
1

ARTIST STATEMENT

I like to think of my work as casting symbolic spells: spells for the health of
degraded prairie remnants, the thriving of bats, fearlessness, romantic love. Spells are a
call for transformation, and images of transformation occur throughout my work - snakes
molting, mummies decaying, insects in metamorphosis. Whether I’m examining a
construction site or the end of a relationship, I’m asking "when is change good and when
is it catastrophic?" 
 

Right now I'm looking closely at punk, witchy contemporary artists like Rosy
Keyser, Maria Loboda, Marisa Merz, Victor Man, and Sterling Ruby. I'm also influenced
by artists who smash a lot of pictures together, or have an overwhelming "Google Image
Search" aesthetic like Isa Genzken, Anne de Vries, and Camille Henrot. At the same
time, I'm drawn to old, mysterious, precious things (Viking runes, Taureg amulets, Hilma
af Klint paintings, archeological digs) and have an abiding love of altarpieces, medieval
objects, Botticelli, and Van der Weyden. Depictions of the Expulsion from the Garden
serve as regular references. In them, I find an entwinement of my interest in ecological
and romantic upheaval and a relationship to the body and touch that is both tender and
precarious.
I want to make work that's about all the inexhaustible things: love, death, history,
sex, mysticism, family, nature. It's not there yet, but I'm working.