3D to 2D

The Ugly Fledgling

I chose to use my destroyed piece from the It's About Time project for this. When I see it, I see this weird freak of nature, almost a Frankenstein's monster (just in time for Halloween!). Then I thought of the Ugly Duckling, and the phrase "A face only a mother could love". Perfect for this project! I decided to use a HD photo of a penguin family, covering the chick in the photo with my piece, which once upon a time was a penguin. I did some manipulating to make it blend in with the environment of the photo, then changed it to sepia and added some graininess. Voila! An old photo! I really like how it turned out, because it shows the contrast between the elegance and smooth surfaces of the penguins in comparison to the rough, odd looking form from my IAT piece.

Drawing Assignments

EXPRESSIVE FORMS IN 3D

"Calm"

"Old"

"Memorial"

POETIC METAMORPHOSIS

Bed

Chest

Bug

MEMENTO

SOAP CARVINGS

 

PAPER STACKING: PUMPKIN

PAPER STACKING: INVENTED

MASKED IDENTITY

(It's shiny!)

Paper Stacking

For this project I chose to push myself, and so I chose a rather oblong pumpkin to work with. I had no idea the task I got myself into! For starters, because of the shape of the pumpkin I didn't want to shape the layers of paper as I stacked. Instead, I simply traced the pumpkin at its widest point and made all of the layers that shape.

Many hours, one and a half bottles of Elmer's wood glue, and five sheets of that $8 paper later, I was finished gluing and stacking. Knowing it was sand-able I was using the glue to my advantage, using as much of it as I could on each layer without it bubbling over the size when I put down the next layer of paper.I let it dry overnight, and the next morning I noticed that part of the uppermost layers had "warped" and curved, but I decided not to allow that to be a hindrance.. Instead, I used it to my advantage! I borrowed a power sander from my handy-dandy boyfriend, and started sanding.

(Sidenote: Be careful with these sanders! I have shed more blood for this class than any other -- extra credit? ;] )

Sanding was extremely difficult because of the sheer amount of it that had to be done. I was two hours in before any kind of actual shape began to form. I had to work with the warping of the paper, which became more of a hindrance than anything because it took more to sand those layers than the others, but finally it began to take shape... And many hours later, voila! Masterpiece!

I am incredibly proud of my pumpkin. Sure, maybe it doesn't look as close to my oblong-y pumpkin as I would like, but that's okay!

For my abstract fruit I decided to look back on my roots -- German roots, that is! I wished to play homage to the German architecture and a lot of the contrasting lines involved, and so chose a highly geometric style including lots of straight edges. The piece looks highly castle-esque. I sanded the edges to round them a bit to bring it closer to being a "fruit", and instead of creating a stem that wound its way up and out of the piece, I drilled a hole into it. Why? It started by accident, but then I decided I liked it -- because it was supposed to be abstract, why couldn't it have an inverted stem? Then to play on narrative, I decided that this fruit would come from a thin vine -- and the actual fruit itself would slide off of the vine, instead of needing to be cut. Why not!

Masked Identity

Dragons are known for several things: their shining scales, fearsome gait, their molten breath, their battles with gallant knights. There is another detail that is prevalent, but perhaps less thought of. This aspect speaks to me moreso than the others. Dragons are known for their hoards, hoards of gold, silver, treasures beyond our grandest dreams. Many knights in fact may not be rescuing a damsel in distress, but may actually be going after their treasury.

For me, I actually do not have such a vault of treasures beyond compare. On the contrary, it is the THOUGHT of having such that has such an impact on my life. I do not have much in life. Besides a few "high-end" things, which I am very thankful for, I have very little. I work part-time while going to school, and send money back home to help support my family when I have excess. I don't work enough, therefore, to be able to shop at the more expensive stores. I can't walk around with $200 boots on my feet and a $75 scarf around my neck. I take what I can get. Most of my shirts have been   ngtfg0?";hpurchased for $5 or less, my jeans $25 or less.

The dragon itself, which is exhibited through form I have created, signifies this desire to have these nice things in life. The shopping bags from such places as Saks Off Fifth Avenue, New York & Co., and Jones New York, are the goods themself. They're strewn about me in a way that signifies the closeness I wish to have with these items; I'd like to make them an every day part of my life. The simplicity of the wooded area in which I have taken the pictures signifies outside forces that cause me to be unable to afford these wonderful things, force me to be frugal.

It's About Time

B E A U T Y

The beginning.

D E S T R U C T I O N

1) Subtractive - A slice was made, first to sever the head and part of the shoulders from the penguin. Then the shoulders were removed to leave just the head.

2) Additive - Fire is added to darken and also melt parts of the sculpture.

3) Additive - A threaded needle is heated and pushed through the torso. When through, the needle is stuck into the shoulder slice and the thread is wrapped around the body of the penguin.

4) Subtractive - The penguin is placed into a microwave and left for 25 seconds. The needle heats the inside, causing part of it to "implode". Part of it melts, and so the breaking down of the soap material is a subtractive process. (Originally I had the head attached, but I removed it and forgot to retake the picture.)

5) Subtractive - The (still soft from microwaving) soap figure is taken outside and rolled across the gravel road. Parts of it fall off in the process, or rub off onto the gravel, and so this is subtractive.

6) Additive - Pieces of gravel from the road are imbedded in the soft material from rubbing it on the road.

7) Additive - The head of the penguin is placed on top of (what used to be) the shoulders, using another needle to hold it atop the body.

8) Additive - I add in the wings from a toucan toy from McDonalds, my puppy's favourite chewtoy.

8) Subtractive - I scraped off parts of the head, subtracting from that part of the figure, a sort of scarification.

F I N .