When we started this project, Miss Laura told us we'd probably hate her by the end of it. While I did have many moments of frustration (especially when I realized my apple was quite misshapen), I never once got mad at Laura. Instead, I'm glad she exposed us to another challenging yet innovative way to create art. I'm not one for origami or other paper folding things, but stacking paper proved to be quite fun, and I got to learn how to use several different tools in the wood shop! I especially enjoyed making my inventive form, which was inspired by the incredible dancer and my favorite SYTYCD winner, Melanie Moore.
Initial Sketches
The power of the human body
W.I.P. Pictures
This is the lovely apple I used as my reference fruit for the project. I went to Publix to specially pick out a worthy apple of my creative endeavor; I thought I had picked out a very nice one until I realized how many bumps and lumps it had (and how difficult it would be to replicate that through stacking). Nevertheless, this apple made for a great model and thankfully did not start rotting until the very end of the project.
Cutting out initial shapes.
I created roughly three different stacks, which I then glued together to form the apple body.
I tried hacking away at the different layers to achieve my apple's true shape (the top layer had gotten too big and I needed to slim it down), but this proved extremely difficult and ultimately inefficient. This is when I realized that even though its sounds and machines intimidated me, I had to go to the wood shop to sand this baby down.
As I mentioned above, I used Melanie Moore as the inspiration for my invented stacked form. I wanted the piece to represent her simultaneous strength and fragility, power and femininity. (These things are, of course, not mutually exclusive.) I therefore decided to balance the thickly stacked, leg-like column on a single pin, alluding to the strong ballerina on pointe.
I compromised with Miss Laura and was able to use some pink netting on my invented piece. The delicacy of the fabric continued my motif of strength/fragility.
Final Solution: Observational
The process was undeniably difficult, but I am actually quite happy with my finished observational piece. I spent many, many hours cutting, stacking, and sanding paper to get my sculpture to look as good as it could. While I know it still has some proportional and structural issues, I am glad it turned out looking pretty darn similar to the fruit I chose.
Peek-a-boo!
Final Solution: Inventive
Having the freedom to do whatever we wanted for our inventive form was a bit scary but definitely liberating. I bounced back and forth between a few ideas before finally deciding to do a dance-inspired piece. One of the reasons I chose to hone in on dance was because it used to be a huge part of my life, and since I didn't use a dance memory for my memento, this was the perfect opportunity to bring it back and creatively utilize that part of myself. I am extremely pleased with how my sculpture turned out. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to show the careful balance between power and grace all dancers tread. One reason dancers are so magical to watch is because they make it look so easy. After studying many pictures of Melanie Moore (what we would call "King Shots" in the competition world), I decided to create an arabesque shape balancing on a single point. I used quite a bit of hot glue to make sure the pin was able to hold up the legs. I also played with scale in making the squares smaller and smaller as they approached the tip of the back leg "foot," as well as negative space in my draping of the pink mesh. The wood base alludes to the dance floor, and the white paint the purity of dancing. The act itself is freeing, a return to "essence," and this is what I wanted to show with this piece.
Everything - the world, you - all balancing on a single toe
No comments:
Post a Comment