Studio Make: Sculpture

In the class Studio Make, our task for half a semester is to create an abstract sculpture using wood, chicken wire, condoms, and paper maché. I decided to make my sculpture have some aspects of representational art as well as it to be abstract. I started with a four legged figure as a base and I wrapped it with chicken wire but I decide not to make a head so it could be more abstract. In replacement of the replacement of the head, I had a bunch of vines coming out of the figure looking like it is being consumed by greenery. As the weeks passed, I was required to incorporate more materials such as food from the wood shop and condoms to paper maché. Personally, my favorite part of the piece was the whittled wood detailing or the chicken wire and the wood shavings weaved into the material. 

Experimental Drawing: Final

 For our final in Experimental Drawing, we had the total of nine different prompts that we had to mix and match to create three different pieces that worked as a triptych four our final project. Our pieces were inspired by the sculptures we created in our other class Studio Make.

Piece 1(Left): 

- Monochromatic color scale

- Far away point of view

- Texture piece

Piece 2 (Middle):

- Complementary colors

- Multiple viewpoints

- Repetition 

Piece 3 (Right): 

- Analogous color scheme

- Up close view

- Gesture/movement

Large Scale John Cage Drawing

The main project for Experimental Drawing was inspired by John cage. The beginning of the project was similar to the rock painting the class did beforehand. In smaller groups, we were given a grid to make a specific mark in each box. The rolls of the dice determined what medium, mark and how many times to make the mark in our piece. This piece was based on chance from the rolling of the dice which made everyone's piece differ from one another. 

After we finished our piece, we had a group critique about if our pieces looked completed or not finished. Some pieces looked incomplete and they did not look unified. The next step in the project was for everyone to put their pieces in one big pile and we switched with someone else so we did not have our original art piece. Our objective was to add onto our new piece given to us and make it look complete. We also had to roll the dice again to see how much we had to cover our new piece with gesso (white paint). 

The next section of the project was for everyone to flip our pieces face down so we could not see them and we made 10 points and we needed to connect them and then cut our pieces. We then put all of our pieces into a pile except a few cutouts that we keep four our new pieces. We took turns grabbing pieces from the big pile full of everyone's work until there was no more pieces left. We also had graphite pieces mixed in that we also cut up. The next part of the project was to tape the pieces that we picked out together still face down so we could not see. When we were done taping our pieces, we flipped it over so we could see and our objective was to bring the piece together so it looked complete. 

I personally had a lot of trouble with this project because I thought it was difficult to stay true to the original artist and apply your work to their piece. I felt like I was taking out too much when in reality I took out too little and I had to go back to my piece again to make it feel like a complete work of art. What I learned from this project was to be more bold and trust myself more as an artist to produce quality artwork. 

Original Piece

First attempt at editing:

Final Piece 

Sol Lewitt Inspired Piece

For this art assignment, we were given four prompts by the artist Sol Lewitt and we had to follow out these instructions given to us. I decided to do prompt #77 which is straight lines about 6" long, touching and crossing uniformly dispersed with maximum density, covering entire surface of the wall. I decided to use chalk pastel and use more cool toned colors like green and blue. The end product of this project was up to he interpretation of the artist. For example, there were other artists who decided to pick the same prompt as be but had a completely different approach to the assignment. I was the only student to decide to use color in my piece even though the prompt did not require it and I wanted to represent myself as an artist as well as follow Sol Lewitt's prompts. 

Sketchbook Notes

Rock painting inspired by John Cage

In experimental drawing we did a piece inspired by John Cage using rocks and dice. The instructions for the project was to roll the dice and depending on what number you get you will use a certain mixture of ink, what number rock to use, and how many times to trace the rock. This piece was based on chance with the rolling of the dice and everyone had pieces that varied from one to another. 

Observational Drawing Final Piece

The final assignment for Observational Drawing was to draw a composition with part of the piece drawn with both interior and exterior spaces. I decided to do a one point perspective drawing in Scholes Library looking out the window. My inspiration for this piece was my daily practice that week because the other day the view of the sunset from that particular window was really nice when photographed and the composition looked really nice to me so I decided to draw it but at a different time of day.

Glass Casting: Experience

September 28th in foundations class was held outside and when I came up to the studios I saw a long table covered in brown paper. We were told by our professors that we were going to eat that day. We were part of a performance art piece that class and we were provided breakfast. We got to sit down wherever we wanted to and we set out our places with plates, bowls, spoons, etc. We had to trace where we placed all of our utensils and things at our place setting and we had to get up and were told that we may have some coffee and juice. When everyone was socializing we were individually called to sit down at an assigned place by the professors across from another student. We had our name written down at our place and it was not the seat that we were originally at. We were then able to get our food and after every five bites of food we had to stand up. After everyone was done eating we had a partner activity to do. The person across from us was to be our partner in our performance art piece and we had to give each other instruction on something that we are good at. For example, I told my partner the instructions on how to draw a tiger and she told me the instructions to make a cappuccino.  After the sets of instructions were finished we had to use our leftover food and plates to make a sculpture. After we made our sculpture we had to redo it to a smaller scale. After our pieces were reduced to the size of a small plate we had to work with our partner to create a combined piece using the materials that we were given. Later we find out that we have to stabilize the form to be cast in glass the next week.
For me and my partner, we decided to put glass over our piece instead of having our relic be imprinted in sand. We had to instruct the students/teachers working with the glass what we wanted them to do and after the glass was poured, we got to use glassmaking tools to manipulate the glass to the shape we wanted. In our piece, we used baking soda to add a frosty look to the glass and give it a unique texture. 

Our "Relic" of our performance art piece

Glass Studios

The finished piece casted in glass

Daily Practice:

This week my theme was to incorporate pointe shoes into photos each day. I decided to do this theme because I am dancing daily and go by the Miller Performing Arts Center everyday and I thought it would be fun to practice my skills of photography and creating interesting compositions. My favorite photo of the week was when I went to take photos at one of the main libraries on campus and I liked how the photo was positioned on camera. 

Sound Drawing: 9/21

Out of studio

For me when I made my piece it was late at night and I was very tired from a long day and that transferred into my art. When I went to the sound area it was later and I had taken a lot of classes that day and it made my artwork be made differently. I think the sound contributed to that because it was very weird and avant gard to stay the least. I used colored charcoal and a very muted color scheme.  But when I was in the sound booth I noticed that I used more color like my emotions were heightened in that specific art piece. 

In studio

Field Recordings 9/14/17

Every Beginning Has an End. A Piece inspired by John Cage.