Final Post

Paper Project:

This project was meant to be centered around an environmental issue, and had two stages: the first one made from regular paper pulp, and the one made on combat paper. Let's have the paper pulp one first:

The issue I'd settled on was the algae blooms in Lake Erie, since I'm particularly fond of Erie and I figured it would be fun to abstract. I really love drips and splatters, so I tried to mix the two ideas and this was the result. The idea here, since it's probably not very clear, is that the boat going across the water, representing harmful practices as a whole, is leaving a growing body of algae in its wake, represented by the green paint. Clearly, this wasn't well thought out nor well executed, and I hated it for quite some time. Now, however, I think of it as a draft for this next piece:

Now this I like, especially considering what a disaster it was shaping out to be in the beginning. I'd intended to xerox transfer a map of the Lake Erie watershed onto the combat paper, but it transferred poorly and I ended up tracing over it with a fountain pen (I had to do the same with the title too--I guess this particular piece of paper just doesn't like xerox transfer!). The water and algae is actually pieces of crayons, cut up with a cheese grater and glued with rubber cement. I was really nervous that the cement would dry too quickly, or I would screw up trying to mix the blue and green in the middle, but it actually turned out very well! This is certainly one of my favorite pieces.

Photoshop Project 

(because I still don't remember what it was actually called...)

In this project we were meant to take photos of an artwork made of mostly natural materials and/or shot in a natural setting, and for it to be something temporary that would soon be destroyed or dismantled. then mess around with them in photoshop. The intent was to change our perceptions of a particular place, or object, or idea. I'm not sure how well I managed that, but I at least had fun with it.

Allow me to present both pictures together:

This project brought me a great amount of frustration. I had little inspiration, and the idea I settled on was a 2D tree made from gathered sticks and leaves stuck onto a wall with clay. I'd originally wanted to also draw flames around it in chalk in an attempt to invoke an idea of the destruction that had to happen in order for that building to be, well, built. However, I am too short and not very good at drawing fire, so I gave up and now it is just a random fake tree. I also just barely knew how to operate photoshop and couldn't get the tree to stand out from the wall enough--the whole thing was just a mess. So what I decided to do was channel that frustration and disappointment into a somewhat more abstract version, which is the second picture. It's still not great, but since adding the second image I feel much better about the project as a whole, and for now I am happy to declare it done.

3D Collage

Now this, this I like. We were meant to make a 3D collage about an environment, any environment. I admit this is probably more of a straight-up sculpture than a 3D collage, but I'm so proud of it I don't even really care. In light of the personal issues I've been having this semester, I decided to portray the mental environment of a person with depression and anxiety. All alone in a tall, narrow box that seems impossible to escape from, nothing to see but black all around. I think I conveyed it fairly well. I may make a follow up piece some day that shows the clay figure trying to crawl out of the box, but for now I'm happy with it as it is.

And now, the big finale...

... how disappointing.

When taken out of context, I am quite fond of this piece. It’s an experimentation with style and content, and for a first attempt at these sorts of things I think it came out rather well.

As a final art project, it falls pretty flat. It hardly incorporates any of the skills we’ve practiced in this class, and is in fact even less polished than most of my drawing. Though drawing was listed as an acceptable medium, I wish that I could have at least attempted to make it out of clay or wire, but unfortunately time was simply too short.

This piece was inspired by the ideas of Albert Flynn DeSilver. He’s expressed interest in how words and phrases often resemble the things they stand for, which is an idea I attempted to convey in “Hanging Vines.”