Which project was your most successful? Describe the theme and or topic and the process you went through to complete the project.
I would say my free project was my most successful project and the one that I was overall the most happy with. This project worked in the way that I could picture what I wanted and how I wanted it to turn out, and it actually did turned out how I imagined it. With other projects I felt I didn't have a clear direction and was unsure if I liked what i was doing, or it became very complicated in the process and I didn't like where it was going. The theme of the project was to use free items and when aluminium foil was mentioned, I knew I wanted to use it and take advantage of it’s color and shininess. When I knew I wanted to make use of these two factors i thought of a shark because I wanted to work with the “grey” color. When designing the project I referenced a lot of anatomy designs of sharks but I kind of mixed multiple diagrams together to get the shark I wanted and would be most recognizable to others. Then I knew I didn't want the straight on approach that the diagrams showed. I was creating a 3D model and wanted to take advantage of that, so I decided to bend the shark in a direction. I didn’t realize the significance until the critique when someone wrote that the shape added movement to the sculpture and I completely agreed. Most things came together when I was going through the project. The body is made out of newspaper and tape and that worked pretty well to create the initial shape. Then I covered that with aluminium foil and started to add the fins with hot glue. The hardest part to work with would probably be the teeth because it took a lot of time to get the small pieces to stay and not fall out. Overall, I really liked how this project turned out and am happy with the final product.
Do over: If given the opportunity, which project would you do over? Describe why and how you would redo this project. Reasons might include choosing a different theme, using a different medium or creating a different idea completely. Include photo.
The project that i am probably not completely happy with the outcome, would be the vessel project. We had to do the same vessel project in Art 2 and I had trouble thinking of what to do. I find that when I have a big general topic without a theme to focus on, I have trouble thinking of an idea. For this project I first started sketching the basic shape of what I wanted. When I did my Pinterest board, I found that I was mostly looking for a theme and unique shape that I wanted. When I started this project I chose a design using the PVC pipe that ended up being a bigger piece to work with. When I was cutting the pieces out I messed up my measurements and had to wing the shapes and make them as close to possible as fitting as possible. This created more of a messy look that I didn't want and it then required a lot of work and time to clean up each part. Then when I had everything cut out and I had to push out the middle, I found it hard to work with the clay without it cracking in the delicate places. Then I chose the wrong way to paint it. I used glaze, and the problem I found with glaze was that I wasn't sure where I needed more glaze and the end product included some places darker than others while some glaze pooled up in cracks and created an ugly piece. If there was anything I wanted to change more, it would be to paint with acrylic and maybe go smaller. |
What did you find most difficult about this class? This could be anything from gathering materials, to generating projects ideas, to applying a particular technique. What could be done to resolve this issue in the future?
I found that with this class there was a lot more freedom. This freedom wasn't necessarily a bad thing, I just had trouble focusing my art in a direction. There wasn't generally a theme that I had to work with, so the possibilities were endless and I had trouble sorting through them to get the best possible idea I wanted. To resolve this in the future, I think I could possibly make up my own general theme for me, and then work with that and specify an idea. This way I could still challenge myself, but get a unique idea. I think I could also work on researching more on the different way materials work. I had an idea from doing the pinterest board, but maybe research more into it, to better understand what I was working with and what was going to come out.
Medium: which medium did you most enjoy working with and why? Which medium did you not use but wish you had explored? Include photo.
If I was asked this question at the beginning of the semester, I would have said Clay. Clay was all I had known and was most comfortable with. I realized that I could only work with clay if I absolutely knew what I wanted to do. I feel that clay is so endless, but I worked better with restrictions. I think my favorite medium to work with, was the cardboard. The cardboard was stressful at the time but looking back on it, I like the possibilities you can get out from it. The cardboard requires a lot of layers and planning out what you are going to cut away, or where you want depth. I like the depth that carboard provides and how cutting away the top layer can let you use the interesting designs in the middle. |
I wish I had explored Plaster more. Again, when I am doing an art project, I like themes and direction of where I need to go. With the plaster pieces I didn't know what I wanted to make or what was possible with it so I just did something more random and abstract. I think I would have liked to work with this more, with better knowledge of how the material works with the tools. |
Has your definition of art changed since from the beginning of this class?
Generally I am a very realistic artist, and don't like to really push things out of the box. I feel like sculpture pushed my out of my regular painting to understand shapes more. With sculpture it creates a lot more time and effort to think of all angles that someone is going to be viewing something at. This happened with my shark piece because there is many angles that It could be viewed at because it is a 3D model. When I thought of sculpture, I just thought of clay. I realized that clay is actually very complicated to work with and can really provide you with anything. Generally people work with clay but I like restrictions and the challenge of working with other materials. This class made me realize that you could use anything to create sculpture and art. I think my favorite project was the free project because everyone thought of so many cool ideas and I was amazed at all the things you could create with everyday objects. It was definitely different from my normal paint and 2D form. This class has taught me to definitely explore new mediums no matter what type of art I am doing, and that really anything can be considered art.