Happenings

I have always been fascinated by mythological creatures, especially fairies. So I decided to create a pair of wings that moved or fluttered. I fashioned the wings using wire coat hangers, copper jewelry wire, and iridescent cellophane. To disguise the coat hanger, I piped on hot glue and painted it with gold acrylic paint. Since I am not mechanically inclined, I wanted to use a ready-made mechanism to make my wings move. During a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond, I noticed a salad spinner with a pull-string and I thought "THAT'S IT!". I affixed the wings and a harness to the spinner using hot glue. To complete my look, I crafted a tutu and gold leaf crown. 

Memento

The memory I decided to base my memento on is one from 3 years ago. The weekend after our senior prom, my friends and I went to Wildwood, NJ, a beach town with a boardwalk full of amusements and food stalls. During our trip, we bought matching hoodies, drank fresh squeezed lemonade and ate fries from Curley's, and walked on the beach in the rain.


The three materials I chose to work with were:

• Jewelry Resin (to represent the plastic lemonade cups) 
• Beach Sand (to represent the beach)
• Hot pink fleece (to represent the hoodies)

 

After pouring in a small amount of resin, I added the beach sand before pouring the remaining resin into my mold (in this case, a medicine measuring cup)

While the resin cured, I covered my mold with a colander to prevent any insects or debris from getting trapped in it. 

Soap Carving

This was the project that tested my patience and perseverance. I have very limited experience using subtractive methods of sculpting, so I chose to carve a hippo, an animal that has stocky features.  I named her Jessica, after a story I had read about a family in South Africa that has a hippo as a pet. I began by carving the main body, opting to add the legs later, which I thought would be easier than it actually was. 

Architecture Relief

For my architecture relief, I drew inspiration from a few of my favorite architectural styles, including:

Mid-Century Modern 

Source: The Original EPCOT

Source: Gorillas Don't Blog

Rococo 

Source: The Wolverhampton Archives

and Traditional Japanese

Source: Flickr user Eliyas J

I began by sketching out a few ideas for how to incorporate these styles in a cohesive way.

Preliminary Sketch:

Revised Sketch:

In order to create the Japanese-inspired stone base, I affixed balls of masking tape to two pieces of foam board and covered them with more masking tape. 

To make the masking tape look more like stone, I mixed together white gesso and black india ink to create a medium grey. 

The second layer was constructed using black and white foam board, black masking tape, and tracing paper. 

The Rococo details on the third layer were created by applying thin layers of wood glue to a plastic mold. Once dry, the pieces were carefully peeled from the mold, glued to pieces of foam board, and painted an opalescent white. 

The finished product:

Overall, I was pleased with the final result. I enjoyed finding innovative ways to use the assigned materials, and I think I came pretty close to replicating what I had envisioned. 

Masking Tape Shoes

              The first project I completed this semester was the construction of a pair of shoes using only masking tape. In order to better understand the construction of a pair of shoes, I decided to purchase and deconstruct a cheap pair of canvas shoes. This was much easier said than done, as the deconstruction process led to more than a few cuts and scratches. I was pleased with the end result, and if I am ever stranded on a deserted island with nothing but duct tape, I will at least know how to make a pair of shoes to protect my feet.  

Phase 1: Paper mock-up

Sole: Tape was rolled to create bulk

Displayed in a shoebox

Detail of eyelets, laces and stitching

Original and Replica

Sole texture was accomplished by embossing pattern with a white paint pen

3D to 2D

Poetry Response

For this assignment, I created two small sculptures using only paper, ink and thread. These sculptures were created in response to the poem Gatsby, Again by Laney Burrell.

For my first solution, I wanted to evoke the sense of emptiness that was present in the poem. I also took inspiration from Art Deco architecture, which has geometric lines and shapes. The "green light turning red" mentioned within the poem is represented by the cylindrical form hanging from the lid of the box. The cylinder was created by coating strips of Rives paper with gel medium and wrapping the strips around a wooden dowel. 

My second solution was inspired by the Hollywood sign and hills mentioned in the poem. I cut vaguely letter-like shapes using an exacto knife and strung them together using contrasting thread.

Memento

The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale.

This is a photo of Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Park, located in Anaheim, California. In photos, the castle looks grand and awe-inspiring. However, in person, the castle is quite small, especially compared to Walt Disney World's Cinderella Castle. You can't properly judge the scale of an object unless you see it in person.

The capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience.

Objects have the ability to trigger memories of the past. For me, this stuffed animal brings back memories of the end of my senior year of high school.

The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the 3D into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body. 

This small charm is representative of a nearly 1000ft structure.

Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss.

This ornament was given to me by my late grandfather, and it serves as a reminder of him and the memories we shared together. 

To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy

This shrunken head is representative of a culture that is very different from that of contemporary Western culture , and acts as a specimen from said culture. The shrunken heads were used as victory trophies by the Jivaro tribe of Ecuador.

Soap Changes

"Jessica"- Hippo soap carving, pre-changes

I began by removing the front limbs of my hippo, which was not difficult since they had already begun to fall off (Subtractive)

I then placed the limbs, in addition to leftover soap shavings from the original carving, into a mason jar and liquified it using boiling water. I had originally attempted to melt the soap via a double-boiler setup, but it turns out that my particular soap does not melt very easily. (Additive and Subtractive)

After liquifying the soap, I poured the soap into two smaller containers and dyed the soap purple and pink using ink (Additive)

I then proceeded to carefully pour the soap onto a sheet of wax paper, marbling the two colors together using a toothpick (Additive)

While the soap was hardening, I returned to my hippo figure and decapitated it using a utility knife. The head broke into multiple pieces while I was cutting (Subtractive)

I then used a loop tool to shave down one of the sides of the torso (Subtractive).

Next, I inserted toothpicks into the sculpture (Additive)

I then burned the toothpicks down, hoping to char the soap. However, the flame extinguished itself once it hit the soap (Subtractive)

Next, I broke the torso into uneven pieces using a utility knife (Subtractive)

                        I then peeled the hardened soap from the wax paper and trimmed off some of the edges (Subtractive). In order to create an adhesive for the soap, I melted down some beeswax pellets.

    I covered up the beeswax with gold acrylic paint and attached the sculpture to a base that I created using balsa wood and acrylic paint.

The final result reminded me of something that might belong on a distant planet. It no longer resembles the soap hippo it was crafted from.

Final Result