Nota: A Mark or Sign

“Nota” is a merging language of sound, instruction, and visual elements from the unique experience of performing on a wind instrument. I create improvisational drawings inspired by the nature of improvisational sound, performance, and the reflection of moment making. These works are tied to my interest in the human body and its endless variations. The anthropomorphic nature of these instruments ties closely to the human element of touch and breathing. As a focus for this experience, I create drawings that are inspired by the essence of communicating through touch what I am often trying to communicate though musical performance. The results begin to describe the form of the formless of sound and sound thought

Postshamanism (1999)

An exploration of the author's experience of studying anthropology and shamanism in Buenos Aires

Of rain, a river

This section of Of Rain, A River was written, workshopped, revised, revised, reworkshopped, revised, revised, etc. while the author was a Master\u27s candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This novel section introduces the fictional landscape of Dine, Missouri and Nemanya County, in Northwest Missouri. This section follows the characters of Wes, Jory and Bill Schmidt, Carson and Danny Sellers, and Xenia. Of Place is a short essay about the various places in, and of, fiction

Write the Body Bloody: Violence, Gender & Identity in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath & Ai

Poems that hang themselves on the rope of acts, apparitions and assertions of violence, voiced by a fierce ‘I’, are primary modes in the work of both Sylvia Plath and Ai. Their violent ‘I’s burst the boundaries of acceptable poetic expression in moments of crisis, trauma and uncertainty, giving voice to the unspeakable. Yet critical analysis has made a habit of dividing these poets’ violent use of the first person, placing Plath firmly in the category of (naked) autobiographical confession and Ai in the tradition of (masked) dramatic monologue. This thesis highlights the links between the modes in which Plath and Ai inhabit the poetic ‘I’, exploring how they each use scenes of violence to perform and interrogate issues of gender and identity, expose the nexus of tenderness and cruelty and obscure the roles of villain and victim. It argues that neither the category of confessional poetry or dramatic monologue can cage these poets’ seizure of the ‘I’ or explain their emphasis on self as theatre and character as concert. It examines the ways in which selected poems from each writer’s work do violence to the gender and identity limits implicit in both labels. The creative section which follows this legacy of ‘unacceptable’ women’s writing continues to agitate against the gender limits imposed upon women. It does not flinch from conflict and unpicks the body to discover what identity really means. It embodies the ghosts that haunt my writing self, demanding they be given a voice. My poetry is a breathing fusion of my personal and my dramatic selves. Like the poetry of Plath and Ai, my own creative work refuses to be caged

Prenatal Maternal Attachment: The Lived Experience

Prenatal maternal attachment and the practice of health promoting behaviors during pregnancy are considered universal phenomena to women. Yet, the understanding of these phenomena from the lived experiences of pregnant women has not been well researched. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of maternal attachment to the unborn child and how that attachment might relate to the practice of these behaviors during pregnancy. The participants in this study were ten English speaking women, college educated, professionally employed, who were pregnant for the first time. Unstructured interviews were conducted with the participants at 14–16 weeks and at 26–28 weeks gestation. The data was analyzed using procedural steps of the phenomenological method. The themes that emerged through data analysis were: awareness of a life-changing event, experiencing a mixture of feelings, being protective, imaging a new life, being connected to this growing life, experiencing the reality of the life within, creating a dream or fantasy, and anticipating the birth. The awareness that this pregnancy would change their lives created a mixture of feelings. From the moments after their pregnancies were confirmed, these women embraced the awareness of the life inside of them and began to practice health-promoting behaviors that provided a certain reassurance for a healthy outcome. They were able to image the growing fetus through their changing body features, in addition to feeling a strong physical connectedness to this new life. Feeling the first fetal movements about 20 weeks gestation, confirmed the reality of this life within them. Dreaming and fantasizing occurred as more mental images of the baby were created, which encouraged these women to begin anticipating the birth while continuing to focus on a healthy outcome. The findings in this study shed new light on the phenomenon of prenatal maternal attachment and suggest that health-promoting behaviors may be an integral piece of the process of developing maternal attachment. Since promoting the health of the mother and fetus is a focus of the nursing role, further research about health teaching to foster these behaviors needs to be generated