Abstract

Drawing from lived experience, this thesis investigates the ways sensitivity, attentiveness, and emotional labor are cultivated over time, specifically within gendered environments that reward endurance and self-containment. The figures in this work exist within moments of tension—straining, compressing, and distorting under pressures that are often invisible yet deeply felt. This work focuses on endurance—how individuals adapt, absorb, and negotiate expectations placed upon them. My figures operate as both personal and collective bodies, embodying experiences that extend beyond being autobiographical. Moments of physical distortion and emotional discomfort coexist within the sculptures, allowing vulnerability and critique to appear simultaneously. Ultimately, the sculptures ask what happens when absorption reaches its limit. If the body has been trained to endure and accommodate, what occurs when the effort of holding everything together begins to surface?

Publication Date

5-6-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Ceramics (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

American Crafts, School for

College

College of Art and Design

Advisor

Peter Pincus

Advisor/Committee Member

Christina Leung

Advisor/Committee Member

Amy McLaren

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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