Bike Garden 1

Here is the finished maquette of my project. I was supposed to use wire to create an object at least 12 inches high and I was to express form and movement.

The object now sits--with the rest of the students finished work--in the display case in the LCC art building.

I love how an idea can form in one's head (imagination) and then it can be put down on paper (creativity) and manipulated, and finally it can be turned into a 3-dimensional object.
Thought becomes form.
I never get this same sense when I make 2 dimensional work such as a drawing or painting; it is exclusive to sculpture.

A Pelvic Bone or a Grotesque Face?

Although this acrylic painting on cardboard looks like some sort of grotesque face it is actually a painting of an animal's pelvic bone.

I did the painting in my Introduction  to Painting class. The warmer color is from the brown of the cardboard and I used black acrylic paint for the dark and white paint for the highlights.

My Instructor, Adam Grosowski, is an awesome painter and teacher and he is making us do a lot of value studies in graphite (slide sketches) and in acrylic paint. He says that most anything can be rendered in ones, fives, and tens on the value scale. One is black, five is gray, and 10 is white.

The two paintings on the right are an interesting comparison. The one on the left I did in 45 minutes and it is on the brown side of the cardboard. After I finished, Adam said that I needed to take a detail of  the painting and blow it up and do another painting-- only this time I needed to do it in a 15 minute time frame. (I did it on the white side of another piece of cardboard.)

The interesting part, to me, is that one painting took 45 minutes and one took 15 minutes and yet they are comparable and the 15 minute painting doesn't at all look crappy even though I was racing the clock.

This also was the experience of the rest of the class.

 

I am learning a lot and after every class I feel as though I am walking out a better artist. Next term I have Adam Grosowsky as my Instructor in Intermediate Drawing and I can't wait!

My First Artist's Pop-Up book!

The cutting and folding stage.

It looks like a book. I can see where this would be addicting. I can't believe I made a book--a real book!

                                   A series of pop-ups I am making.
                                  The process involves a lot of cutting and gluing.
                                 I am using drawings I have previously done and I zeroxed them from my notebooks.

                                  Some of the drawings I turned into print marterial to get repeated images.

                                     

It is a work in progress. It is fun and exciting and I will post more photos as the work continues.

Bike Garden: 3-D design and my Maquette

I am turning my sketches for a sculpture into a 3 dimensional object. It it as if thought--a vague image in my mind--is emerging into real time and space. It feels like alchemy.

Here is a photo (below) of some of the wheels. The wheel at the top of the photo--the wheel that looks slightly mangled--was my first attempt. I did the other wheels a few minutes later as I become more accustomed to working the wire.

Here is a reminder (below) of what I am trying to shape with wire--although I know the finished product will look different than any of my sketches.

Wish me luck--I only have this weekend and one day next week to finish a wire sculpture.

The Evolution of a Sculpture: Spider forms and Wheels.

Again, here is my next class assignment for 3 Dimensional Design,

 Line: create a maquette, no less than 18 inches tall, using only line, that exhibits a physical activity. This maquette should define volume and form and be visually dynamic.

I started putting some ideas down on paper last night and continued to develop the idea today. Here is the progression:




I drew this one just before bed, last night. I thought it was too simple, so I wanted to further play with the idea.

 

 
 
 

 

 
 
This was the next one I drew. As you can see the original image is in the center, but I have added other ideas to the composition. I am still not quite happy with what I have done.

 
Now I am getting closer to what I want, even though the original idea has disappeared. I like the wheels but the assignment calls for something dynamic. I wanted to imply dynamic motion with the knobs on the wheels-- showing them at different points on the wheel as if it were all the same wheel turning around. Still the upright poles don't look very dynamic.

Well, this composition is certainly more dynamic and I like the multiple images clustered together. I think that I like this one best. I think it is closer to the requirement of dynamism. I can see them cast from metal and looking a brown and rusty green, surrounded by weeds. For the assignment I will have to make this from wire.

I will keep you posted on how this project evolves. Art is fun and challenging!
 

Create a Maquette

Here are the directions for my next art project in Dimensional Design--

 Line: create a maquette, no less than 18 inches tall, using only line, that exhibits a physical activity. This maquette should define volume and form and be visually dynamic.

(A maquette is a sculptural rough draft or sketch, but instead of lines on paper it exists in 3 dimensional space.)

What would you do if you had my assignment?

A Happy Accident in 3-D Design

I am taking a 3 Dimensional Design class from Professor Andreas Salzman at Lane Community College.

For our first assignment Professor Salzman (Andy) dropped brown paper bags on our desks. Then he told us that we needed to use the contents of the bags to create personal icons for ourselves; something that represented us.

The bags held, about 20 wooden matches, two paper clips, a striker for the matches, and two rubber bands. Andy said that we could use glue, tape, sandpaper, and exacto-style blades to create our pieces.

At first I was dumbfounded with no idea what to do. I took a break and went to the cafeteria. I got a candy bar and a Monster energy drink then returned to class to stare at the contents of my bag. Spilled out on my desk they looked like something left over from a bad car crash.

I have never seen myself as a sculptor even though I have, for a long time, admired sculptors such as Henry Moore and Kiki Smith.

Finally, I dived in and began gluing the matches to long strips of brown paper bag. I burned the heads of the matches because, unburnt, the matches had heads the color of green apples. I thought they looked gaudy and artificial.

Next,I made some sort of round fence from the strips, with the paper clips straighted to make poles upon the tops of which I glued pieces of the striker pad.

I didn't like my work.

Then class was over and we had to pack up our stuff and go home. I rolled up my project to fit it into my art box and when I rolled it up, to my surprise, I liked it!

It is what we artists call a "happy accident."

(I am, with this writing, posting photos of the finished work.)

This art piece is more about how I visually explain "us" than how I visually explain "me".

I see us all crowded tightly together, yet we are nameless and faceless; (post-modern alienation and isolation). Also our sensory panels (modes of communication) are turned outward and not towards each other. E.g., the people on the school bus and in the halls of school, texting and staring into their blackberries and iPhones, yet not looking into my eyes or saying a word.

It feels empowering to visually represent what I experience and I am looking forward to growing in the 3 Dimensional medium.

Radiant Lake: My heart

This was the first drawing I did in 2011. I did it january 2nd.

The owner--it is already in a private collection--said they thought it looked friendly. However, I see a little menace in it.

What do you see?