Environment & Landscape/Paper Sculpture

This project was fairly difficult for me as it was my first introduction to working in a three-dimensional space. I originally wanted to do dozens of layered cone shapes and paint them in Black 3.0 to achieve a sort of “hole” in space.

This didn’t work. At all.

I then started to look more at architecture and tried to draw some inspiration from that, cutting into a piece of paper and bending it into different forms. I then took a second sheet and added some more shapes to make the curvature a little dramatic.

I was going to retake the photo’s from this, but I want to show some growth, so here are the originals.

Lightform Sculpture

I was very much in my element at the beginning of this assignment. I really enjoy working in Illustrator and had a lot of fun designing out my sculpture. Especially getting those jigs in. However, I did bite off a lot more than I could chew and I am probably going to have little teardrop shapes of plastic floating around my house for years to come.

Originally I was going to do a wave made out of layered teardrop shapes but, after seeing the thickness of the material, I had to switch up my design completely. I started building symmetrically upwards and eventually called it quits until I heard Ruth E. Carter on a Netflix show speaking about the function of her materials and costumes that she uses. So I drilled a hole into a mannequin head, attached my lightbulb, and made a crown.

Found Object Collage

I think it’s just fair to say that I should just go with my second idea, I really enjoyed how this one came out. I originally wanted to source some scrap metal weave it together with metal wire but I was not able to actually get out and source the material.

As I was browsing the internet I stumbled on the “Gates of Hell” by Rodin and it inspired me to use all the leftover miniature pieces I had to make a small placard. The piece itself is made of scrap plastic sprue for the framing and 49 separate arm and hand pieces, each glued into place with tweezers. I then painted the entire placard in Black 3.0 and dry brushed in various tones of white to bring some detail back while making it a little grungy.

Personal Space/
Personal Identity

I originally wanted to do a wire woven necklace with a piece of black kyanite that I have. I went through a whole spool of jewelry wire before switching focus. I wasn’t sure if I was using the wrong gauge of wire or if I just wasn’t grasping the concept of using wire. As usual, I switched materials.

I decided to work with clay and had a ton of fun working with it. I hadn’t worked with clay since my senior year of high school back in 2008. I did the initial form in layers so I could cover up any cracking and keep the tentacles on the form in the right position. I inevitably ended up covering the entire piece in plastic resin and painting it using acrylic contrast paints and inks.

He wants to offer you a mushroom in these trying times.