"French fundraiser" Acrylic paint on drywall 24 inch by 34 inch May 2019 EXHIBITION TEXT: My intention with this piece was to represent when someone wants to ask for help it seems so appealing but when it comes down to doing the actual action it isn't as simple as it seems. I do this by using Das clay, wire and rice. I was inspired by Marie Bergstedt and Herb Williams. I was inspired to create a telephone from Maries piece. |
Critical investigation
Grant, J. (2018, August 20). Herb Williams Turns Crayons Into Iconic Dog Sculptures. Retrieved from https://getleashedmag.com/2018/07/20/herb-williams-turns-crayons-into-iconic-dog-sculptures/
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(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/artist_interviews/082_marie_bergstedt_12.html
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I really struggled with coming up with an idea for this piece, mainly because there was so much room for creativity and most of my ideas were too big for me to handle in the time given. I had stumbled on this piece when looking for inspiration and I loved it so much that I knew I had to create something like it, which gave me the idea of using rice instead of crayons. I wanted my piece to have a textural element like this one does, its my favorite part about the piece. The fact that you want to touch it and actually use the phone is what I'm most proud of.
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I spent a lot of time looking through mixed media pieces. I know how to embroider so i was searching for an embroidery piece for inspiration but i found this one. I didn't use the knitting technique but the bottom red line gave me the idea to use a phone and the rest of the ideas just came flowing in after that.
After thinking about it for a while I came up with the idea for the colors and the sad faces, it all fell into place after looking at this piece. |
Planning Drawings
This is my first planning sketch, my original idea was to use fishing wire to hang up things in the shape of something. In this sketch the shape was the heart, after planning and shopping I realized this piece was too over my head and I just couldn't reach it.
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This was my second sketch which was more focused on nature after seeing Andy Goldsworthys work in class. I was thinking about hot gluing rocks together into the shape of wings to show that the things that bring you down can be used to make you fly. I actually tried out this idea but the glue didn't work so I had to go back to the drawing board.
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This was my final sketch. This is the plan that actually worked out. After sketching project after project, I was so happy that this one actually worked. The plan seemed really hard and complex so I was ready to lose hope but it actually worked better than I had anticipated. The idea is to make the phone out of clay and then decorate with colored rice.
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Process, Ideas and Intentions
Process
Before you begin working with the clay, you need to prep your rice. You begin by putting rice into separate baggies for each color. Add a small amount of vinegar into each bag.
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To color the rice just put the corresponding food color into the baggie and add some hand sanitzer into each bag to help and even the spread of color.
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To spread color, shake and rub baggie.
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Pour out in separate areas to dry.
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Once the rice is finished, you can start the phone. To do this you must build a base. I taped cardboard together until I had the shape i needed. To hold the phones shape, take some thick wire and cut and shape to the shape of a macaroni. Once cut insert into the phone carefully.
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Once you are happy with your shape, you can begin rolling out your Das clay like its cookie dough. Once rolled, cut out a clean piece and lay it over the box, continue doing this until box is covered. Once covered, blend the clay together until smooth. Once assembled, i began painting in an impressionist technique where the corresponding rice is going to be glued.
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Now that you have begun using clay, make sure that unused clay is either in an air tight container or kept moist with water. For the buttons, roll out the Das clay like cookie dough as you had done for the outer of the box and cut out equal sized squares. Once you have 9, blend them onto the face of the box with your fingers and water. For the phone holders, roll 2 small coils and cut out 2 rectangles out of flattened clay. Connect the two pieces with your fingers and water. connect those pieces onto the phone and the box with water and your fingers.
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Experimentation
When I had started working on the base(box) I tried to use the coil method. This method did not work at all and I had to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to make this project work. My brother eventually gave me the idea to get the box out of cardboard first, which makes the piece even more mixed media. |
Reflection
I am extremely proud of this project. This was one of the hardest projects to come up with. I am very grateful for all the things I learned from this. I now know you cannot glue rocks together and that I do not like creating things like Andy Goldsworthy. I also remembered that I really dislike working with clay since the bad memories from creating coil pots had resurfaced. However, even with all the dislikes and struggles I managed to come out with a very nice piece. It came out exactly as I had wanted it to. The bright hues and the texture is perfect.
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Critique
I feel that my piece came out better than I had anticipated it to be. I originally thought it was going to look really childish and slapped together but that's not what happened. It does look like a cake instead of a clay and rice sculpture but I still think it looks very neat. The texture is perfect and the shape is perfect. I am so proud of myself for creating this piece. The unity of all the rainbow hues and the travelling of the eye from one area to the next by color is perfect. I love it!
Compare and Contrast
Similarities between my piece and Call for Couture :
Similarities between my piece and Final Phone:
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Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and it's effect upon your artwork?
Each of my inspirational pieces had a effect on my work in one way or another. For example, Since i had been inspired by odees collages it had effect on my work by giving me the idea of and ocean for my foreground and background
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
So Odee was describing himself and how he describes his art.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas,culture,etc. While you researched your inspiration?
One generalization from Odee was that he didnt want to be associated with the typical artsy people and their sterotypes.
What is the central idea and theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea and theme around my research was to put feelings in my piece, from Salvador Dali and don't think about it too much, from Odee
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Odee wanted to visually express himself instead of making art.
Each of my inspirational pieces had a effect on my work in one way or another. For example, Since i had been inspired by odees collages it had effect on my work by giving me the idea of and ocean for my foreground and background
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
So Odee was describing himself and how he describes his art.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas,culture,etc. While you researched your inspiration?
One generalization from Odee was that he didnt want to be associated with the typical artsy people and their sterotypes.
What is the central idea and theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea and theme around my research was to put feelings in my piece, from Salvador Dali and don't think about it too much, from Odee
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Odee wanted to visually express himself instead of making art.
Bibliography
1.“I Create Digital Colleges To Express Myself Visually.” Bored Panda,www.boredpanda.com/digital-collage-art-from-iceland/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic.
2. “15 Things You Didn't Know About The Persistence Of Memory.” Mental Floss, 21 May 2018, mentalfloss.com/article/62725/15-things-you-didnt-know-about-persistence-memory.
2. “15 Things You Didn't Know About The Persistence Of Memory.” Mental Floss, 21 May 2018, mentalfloss.com/article/62725/15-things-you-didnt-know-about-persistence-memory.