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.