Sculpture

So, it has literally been forever. Sorry for being a loser and not keeping up with blogging for you guys. I have some fun stuff to show you though! I'm going to split it up in to multiple posts so that it will stay relatively organized. 

This post is going to be about some of my most recent school projects. I am taking 3 studios this semester: Photography, New Media (which includes things like photoshop and building websites), and sculpture. Sculpture is by far my favorite, and following closely behind is photography. Right now I only have documentation of my Sculpture pieces but will share my photos at a later time. 

First let me explain sculpture. I am not carving figures out of granite or some type of stone. Sculpture is a type of art that is pretty much open ended. There are so many types of materials to be played with and so little rules that it is hard to explain what sculpture is until you are actually explaining a particular sculpture. This open ended type of art is something that really draws me in, I enjoy the fact that I can bring in whatever I want whether its metal sculpting, clay, colored pencil or paint it can all be combined to create a sculpture. 

With that noted, we were given pretty broad guidelines for each project. Project 1. was supposed to be inspired by trap. It could be a literal trap, an interpretation of a trap, and our only TRUE rule was that 70% of the project had to be made out of mild steel. Yes, my very first week in sculpture I learned how to use a cutting torch and 3 different kinds of welders!!

Yes, those tools have made me even more interested in pursuing sculpture as a focus :) 

I took a while to come up with this first concept, I didn't want to be literal I liked the mind games that could be played and considered traps that show up in everyday life. I was really interested in playing with opposites. I decided to go with a liquid table. I knew this would be hard but I designed a coffee table that looked (or is supposed to look) as if it is liquid leaving the viewer unsure whether it is safe to use as a table. 

I know its hard to explain, but I have pictures!!! 

Obviously, steel wasn't the best material to make look liquid and I have a lot of practice to do with the cutting torch and welder; but hey! The library thought it was good enough to use as a place to hold handouts!! (These pictures kind of suck, once I get the table back to my apartment I will take better shots and add them for your viewing pleasure). 

Now my second project I really enjoyed. This assignment was about growth and infection. I have always been drawn to words and their importance so I immediately wanted to make a piece that referenced how our language has changed. I wanted to originally focus on words that have been so over used that they have almost lost all meaning such as love. But I soon realized that I could make a larger statement about exactly how I felt about language as a whole that would leave much more of an impact. 

displayed in the architecture library

 My thought for this piece was how our words have lost meaning. So I literally took an old dictionary and cut out every single page leaving only the margins. This made the dictionary into something that "looked" meaningful but really had no meaning. I then took those pages and sliced them and made TOOOONNNNNNSSSS of paper chains. I chose chains because chains are a very weighty object; both literally and figuratively. Chains aren't something that you usually see just sitting around with out a purpose. Chains have a meaning and they are literally heavy. I feel like words and language is something that should have a purpose and meaning but it has lost its weight in recent years. By creating these paper chains from what defines our language (the dictionary) I have literally taken something that should be heavy and full of meaning and made it pointless. It can't be used either as a chain or as a dictionary. 

I am starting my 3rd project this week which is about water. I've got a few ideas but I will wait to share when I have the finished project. It is due at the beginning of November so not to much time to pump this bad boy out! 

I hope my descriptions aren't too long and I hope that these pieces make some type of since! 

Like I said I will post more pictures of the table, keep you updated on project 3, let yall see some photography stuff, and post a few more side projects soon!