Honors Capstone Defense for Kiana Ziegler
Honors Program senior student Kiana Ziegler will present her Honors Capstone, Meditation of the
Flesh - Self-Therapy for Chronic Illness on December 3rd, at 5:00PM in the Coburn Art Gallery.
Kiana's abstract reads, I havebeen diagnosed with chronic health conditions that impact my
everyday life. In order to help deal with my thoughts and emotions relating to these chronic
health conditions, I paint. My work is a cathartic self-therapy and a meditation on the flesh.
Through it, I express the fear and anxiety I experience in relation to my own body and health.
My path into this topic started with my fear of not wanting or being physically able to bear my
own children, an important part of the future I’ve imagined for myself. In my first three paintings,
I grieve for this lost future and come to an acceptance of what may lie ahead in the
yonic (“yoni” being Sanskrit for the vulva and the female equivalent to “phallus”) flower forms
on the canvas. As I continue along with the series, I begin to mourn the loss of other aspects
of a normal life through related flower forms. The complex forms and textures invite the viewer
to look closely at the paintings, encouraging them to move along the curves and bumps of the
works, contemplating the wonders and horrors that exist within the body. By completing this work,
I gained a better understanding of my process and how I want to communicate while also
helping myself and others who have been through similar experience via catharsis (a release of
repressed emotions).
Kiana Ziegler, from Ashland, OH, will graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Art, with a
painting concentration, and a Bachelor of Art in Commercial Art, with a graphic design
concentration. Ziegler is the youngest of Alma and Charles Ziegler of Ashland. She grew
up in Ashland, graduating from Ashland High School in 2015. She entered her college
career as an Honors Program Scholar, and shortly afterward, was inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta,
an honor society for academic excellence. She received the opportunity to create a mural for the
Writing Center and a portrait for the theater production, Little Women, in 2018. Off campus,
Ziegler completed the illustrations decorating the entrance to Masterminds Escape
Room and Game Library. She has completed several other private commissions as a
freelance artist.
Active in her department, Ziegler served as the Vice President and President of Art Club.
She was granted the opportunity to travel with the Art Department to museums in Chicago,
Detroit, Pittsburg, and New York City. Ziegler was rewarded many art awards, such as
the Bernini Art Award, People's Choice Award, Design and Illustration Award, and
Best in Show in the Juried Student Art + Design Exhibition. During the Spring 2019
Graphic Design Senior Show, Ziegler was rewarded the Outstanding Senior Award.
She showed her artwork along with other projects at the Undergraduate Research
and Creative Activity Symposium. She was on the Dean's List 7 semesters, and
received several scholarships.
Upon graduation, Ziegler plans to either attend Ohio University to receive a Masters in
painting, or to continue working toward her goals of owning a house and traveling to Japan.
Professor Keith Dull, Associate Professor of Art, served as Kiana's mentor for the project.
All are invited and encouraged to attend.
