Posts

Time lapse video of the painting process:

The color theory of pink:

Optimism

To say that someone is seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses means that they are seeing it with excessive optimism. Pink is a color that represents hope, but sometimes it can be associated with not seeing the negative aspects of reality.

All pictures are in chronological order to show the process of creation:

Stage 1- the base
Stage 2- adding simple features
Stage 3- adding complex features and creating face depth
Stage 4- adding ears

After coming in to the studio on 11/4 and attempting to transfer my ideas from paper to the large cardboard from the shop, I realized that details and proportions were getting easily lost in translation. I think this is likely due to the fact that I had never scaled something to this large of a size before.
Because of this, I have made an exact scale smaller drawing that I will project onto the cardboard and trace onto there (using my own projector from home), so that I can make exactly what I sketched be translated onto a larger scale on the cardboard.
I warped my face accordingly to make the image of my face elongated, but still within the border lines of the digital canvas itself. Not only did warping and distorting allow me to play with proportions, but it also allowed me to maintain some sense of resemblance to my face that was lacking in my initial attempt today.

The side view reference is mostly for determining the silhouette of my nose, forehead, lips, and mouth.

Artist Research:

Link to Inspiration Images: https://www.pinterest.com/morganmartist/body-extension-project/

Sketches:

Idea for head sculpture:

Acts as a performance piece that will be made into a video at the end to show in critique, sort of a satirical public humiliation.
I go to the grocery store wearing it, trying to drink walk down the street, going to the bank, go to church wearing it, sitting on the porch, to zoom meetings, while getting the mail, to get coffee/ food from Speedway, dance in it, literally just do anything I would typically do, but with this body extension on me.

Song to go along with the performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mML2fPec7xU&list=PLG5HgaTmjPyb-CnozTKvPHN3jXLviYLtB&index=3

After the advice given in class yesterday after I had communicated that I was finished (10/26), I came in for several hours and developed/evolved my piece further in preparation for tomorrow’s critique. The biggest suggestion was to make it look more like a plant/seed pod, and my solutions for that was building on to the ends to create a point that more closely mirrored the form of my several inspirations, and adding a stem (that would be attached to a tree, but in this case the pod has fallen off), in .
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
I am very happy with this choice, and it looks more like my inspiration images/ previous understandings of nature now than before.

After continuing my work over the weekend, I came in to class today with the intention of adding more layers of plaster on the fabric and on the pod, and attaching the blooms to the fabric extension. I accomplished both of those things and it is evident how my project has evolved since the beginning.

My purpose in adding the blooms was to embody the progression of a seed being planted and then being watered (hence the effect of the fabric imitating a waterfall), and then growing life from that pod that fell from the seed. In addition to building, abstracting, and morphing a form, I took forms in nature as inspiration and interpreted this in a loose fashion to create semi-abstract art that reflects properties in the observed world (as the syllabus states). The form of the pod acts as the recognizable vessel that this project requires, and the fabric/blooms act as an abstraction of the process of natural growth. I combined painting and sculpture by using the plaster to “paint” intentional and thought out texture on the form. The unity of the combined aspects of this piece is found in both the formation of the physical sculpture itself (the visual balance and movement), and in the natural process of growth it is showcasing.

In using inspiration from my artist research, I found great love for how Lucy Glendinning’s work begins with inspiration from short poems or statements.
Here is the poem that informed my sculpture:

“Like a flower in the desert,
I had to grow
in the cruelest of weather,
holding on to every drop of rain
just to stay alive.
But it’s not enough to survive,
I want to bloom
beneath the blazing sun,
and show you all of the colors
that live inside of me,
I want you to see
what I can become.”

-Christy Ann Martine

After trial an error with plaster, and the instructor given advice of addition to my piece one week before critique, I wonderfully discovered the way I could create my intended form by stretching fabric dipped in plaster over my frame to create the tension I desired. I was also provided with beautiful casts of some pods found in nature, which gave me inspiration to consider moving forward. I also took into account my years of attending Earth Camp, learning about things that grow in the woods, walking around in the forest with my grandpa using nature as an inspiration in personal artwork, and pods that I had seen previously in my life. I chose to exaggerate the bumps and “growths” that happen in nature, because my project became more visually interesting and full of form when I did so. I also loved the volume or thickness of my form, and found a way to problem solve and work around the limitations of this being my first time utilizing plaster in this way, and the limitations of the material itself. My concern that I shared with Todd was that if this was not built up more (layered), the fabric may droop in between the backbones of the frame, which would not look good and would cause it to not look like a pod. We agreed on this. I was instructed to not utilize the wire mesh, but to move straight to placing the fabric on the frame, and I did so. I discussed my piece during this time with Todd and my understanding was that I am doing much better than before, because I took his advice and I had moved away from using the “found vessel” in my previous attempts, and am now learning how to create form on my own (the organically formed pod). I am glad that I moved away from the found object I had at the beginning, because I have gained more skills in this process. Before class ended, I was told that I could do this, that I’m a hard worker– and that was a great compliment of my work ethic and willingness to learn. Moving forward from class today (10/21), I planned on layering more plaster, creating more texture, and capturing the subtle details of such texture in my organic form, and adding some additional components to tie in to the theme of nature.

Over the weekend (10/23 and 10/25) I came in and worked for several hours on building up this form, creating texture and depth to it. I also attached the piece of fabric to this form, and began to work with that component of the piece.