Project 4 (Group Project) 2

We've added a few more details to our previous ideas about our project. We plan on putting some personal images on the boxes, and this is to reflect the individuality of each one of the boxes. We might also use cardboard that already has images on it, and we might also make some more powerful images on the center boxes.

Working with the cardboard is really interesting, I never would have thought you could do so much with it. Ripping it seems to create the most engaging lines in my opinion. Putting the boxes together without using any adhesive was really difficult, and easy when I used hot glue. We've all taken different approaches to making the boxes, so they're all going to turn out really different, which is great for our themes.

Even though each of us is making thirteen boxes in total, I'm a little worried that the individuality and uniqueness of each of the boxes will make them too different in size. This might sacrifice the conical shape of the whole thing, but that might not be such a bad trade. There are certainly enough powerful aspects to the piece that it might not necessarily need to be packed with every metaphor we can think of.

Project 4 (Group Project)

I think we've come up some good ideas for our group project. As a group, we spent a really long time discussing how to best combine our thoughts and the ideas which were prevalent in the 3rd project. We spent a lot more time talking and deciding what we really wanted to do to very specific aspects. Even though it took a while to get everyone to agree on a very specific project, I think it will benefit us in the end. Whatever time we lost in discussing detail is certainly worth the addition those details add to the project. We're going to have to use a lot of boxes, but the project should turn out pretty nice.


Our idea for the project is to have a bunch of stacks of boxes. The boxes will be smaller and smaller closer to the top of stacks, crating a sort of conical shape. These will almost be a microcosm for the overall project, which arranges the stacks of boxes in a conical manner. There will be one stack of boxes 5 tall in the middle, with a ring of four around stacks around it that will be 3 boxes tall. Around that will be a circle of six stacks 3 boxes tall. The idea of having the boxes in a circle most is closely related to the theme of my third project, which focuses on the circularity of things and the natural recycling process.

We plan on connecting the boxes to both reflect the theme of family and the connectedness of my last project. This should also help the viewer's eye perceive the circles we are trying to create with the formation of the boxes. All the boxes on the outside towers will be open toward the inside, and the middle tower will be open to all sides. This aspect reflects the connectedness of family.

Project 3 Reflection 3

The use of fishing line and wax as connection devices for my sculpture turned out to be a really fortuitous addition to my project. At first I tried to use the wax to keep my project from collapsing, but it just wouldn't work with the physics of the piece. It did, however, work really as a simple but powerful addition to the image. The melting and dripping wax adds a sort of sense of heat to the image, reinforcing the image of ash at the bottom of the piece.

The fishing line adds new metaphor and reinforces the metaphors already present in the piece. The new metaphor introduced by the fishing line is the metaphor of the invisible puppet strings that bind and move us all. Its cool that these strings are actually invisible from more than a few feet away. It also reinforces the metaphor of connectedness present throughout the various aspects of the piece, even if you can't see where the connections lead.

Project 3 Reflection 2

Working with the materials to create the image in my head and in my sketchbook was really difficult. In my sketchbook I didn't have to worry about the physics of my art. I just had to keep it on the page. But when dealing with 3 dimensions, I had to completely rethink my creation strategies, adapting to the limits of the physicality of the rocks. The form I had became more and more minimal as I went on, because I really wanted to focus on the weight of the image and the negative space. I really wanted a lot of weight to be put on the arm, and doing the sculpture in rock was perfect for this, but adding rocks to the other side would have added to much weight to the entire image. So I subtracted rocks from the other side, which allowed the imagination the viewer to take over from the cues I have given to see the rocks as a human figure. From that point the viewer can use her imagination to fill in the negative space with what she imagines the human figure would be doing in that space. This is a really cool effect, as it creates a sort of mist in the image's negative space, which is appropriate for the graveyard, smoke of smouldering ashes, or the metaphorical mist of creation, undefined over a long period of time.

Project 3 Reflection

The idea behind this project was a sort of reincarnation. When I drew my original sketch I was thinking that, at least from a scientific point of view, everyone is reincarnated. When you die, your body decomposes and eventually even molecules are decomposed and recomposed, recombining to make new things.
I wanted to use the rocks in correlation with the human form to show that in the end everything is made of the same stuff, and even rocks and people have a lot in common. The form was originally designed to be coming out of a hole in the board, representing a grave. But in the absence of a saw, I had to rethink how I wanted to portray the grave. Making it more abstract worked out really well in the end, as it still has the basic shape and overtones of a grave, but also looks like ash. Using the painted rocks as ash works really well to, as it multiplies the implications of the metaphor. The figure is rising from both the grave and from the ashes, which are rock, which means there is both a human and rock rising from rock, creating multiple levels of circularity and recycling of ideas and materials.

Second Project Reflection 2

I'm not a big fan of the Crayola model magic. I'm not very good at sculpting with clay, as I found out in my Ceramics class last semester, and the model magic is really difficult to work with. It stretches, tears, and flops around too much for my liking, but I think it worked really well for this project. For the image I needed to create, it was probably one of the best media that I could have used.

The sagging of the model magic worked beautifully in capturing the feeling inherent in the image I wanted to construct. I really wanted to capture the feelings of despair and the visceral melting of the situation of many of the homeless. At the same time I really wanted to capture the bench as "home." So, having it curve in with the weight of the person captures both the sagging of sorrow and the strangeness of trying to find comfort in the bench. It's almost as if the bench has a personality of its own, and is trying to accommodate and comfort the person, to try to take some of the burden, the vast weight, from off the sitter's heart. I really thought that a simplified version of my sketchbook idea would be the best way to go on this project. The simplicity allows the pure visceral to shock the viewer, with minimal distraction. The simplicity also reflects the lifestyle of the homeless , and the minimalism that their life must take.
Another aspect of this piece that I like is the proportions. The person seems to be shrinking into himself, shriveled and bent beneath the weight of his situation. At the same time the bench appears to grow in the eye, flaring at the sides in a comforting and even protective embrace. But at the same time, very little of the figure is actually attached or toughing the bench, indicating that officially the person does not own this bench and the ties that tie their symbolism together are ephemeral or at least ethereal in nature, and are harshly opposed by the laws of society.

Second Project Reflection

In the conceptual stages of this project I was thinking about different conceptions about what a home is, and how each person thinks of different things when they think of the word 'home.' One thing that really captured my attention in my sketches was the thought about homeless people. How would being homeless, I asked myself, change how I perceive the word 'home'? Home usually equals a house in my mind, but how would this change if I had no possessions to base a materialistic view upon? Would I adopt new views of what constitutes my home? Would my surroundings become my home? Would my concept of home broaden or shrink?

This concentration of mine on the homeless mindset was probably fueled by my recent trip to Washington D.C. I traveled there as part of the Denison Service Orientation, working in soup kitchens and food pantries around the DC area. Talking with and interacting with people in these environments and in this context really changed my perspective on the whole subject. Before I went I would have called these people "homeless people," but I think of them now as "people who are homeless." I think of them as people first defining them by their humanity before I define them by their situation. It's not necessarily a disambiguation that needs to be made in the way its phrased, but I think it's important to keep in mind when considering them.

First Project Reflection 2

There are a few things I think I would change if I did another project in branches/twigs. I think the first thing I would try would be to try being less literal and more figurative with my choices in my creation. One thing I would like to try in this area is to try some minimalism. I think it would be cool to try combining this with use of the wire as media rather than a connective utility. Like this:

First Project Reflection

This project was interesting to work on. Using wood rather than the materials I am used to working with like pen, paper, and paint, really changed my perspective on what I was doing . The first aspect of working with wood was the simple fact that I was working in 3-D sculpture. I've worked in 3 dimensions before, but very little, and it really forced me to reconsider how I view my creation. I had to consider the fact that it could be seen from many angles, and therefore could not merely copy what had been drawn in my sketchbook. The introduction of another dimension to my work meant that I had to re-envision the negative space in my work in a spatial context. There were also new aspects of movement, mainly adding another vector for movement to occur in.
Working in wood straight from the tree is very different from other media. Certain lines are more difficult to create in wood rather than in pen or pencil. It's really difficult to bend branches to the shapes I wanted them to be , but I think the effects of using branches and twigs more than compensate for the lack of realism. In fact, they offer a completely new view of the subject and can really add to the meaning even if the subject is unrecognizable for what it is. I think my shopping cart was just recognizable enough to be effective with very little context.