Studio Saturday

This past week was hard on me as there were either projects due or to be worked on in each of my studio classes. Long work hours didn't help either, but now I have the weekend to relax a little.

In my painting class, we have been working on a large painting (at least 30"x40") that deals with a current issue. This issue can be something personal or global. Mine is the recent lottery craze in the United States. I don't have any images of it right now and won't be working on it until tomorrow so it can dry a little bit.

In photography, our portraits were due. I did a self portrait that included each of my dogs.

The images were taken with my inexpensive point and shoot digital, then changed to sepia and resized before being printed on cotton fabric. The fabric is a cream tone-on-tone from Joann's. I fused the images to duck cloth and then stitched around the edges to clean them up and prevent fraying. Eyelets were added to link the two together and the wood hanger was created with help by Chad. Chain is shown in the photograph, but I did switch it to a waxed thread that is brown in color. This piece is in the hands of my instructor, so I didn't get to take a photo of the finished piece. It did go over well in critique which made me happy. There are little things I would change but overall, it shows my relationship with my dogs very well.

Our final (!) assignment is to create five different pieces that show where we are in life and who we are right now. She is giving us over the weekend to set up a timeline for working on them and also to come up with ideas for them. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do at this time.

I finally have something to show you from my sculpture class. I went back and forth on this piece and put it together only a few days before critique. Our sculpture had to do with sculpting the nothing. This was left up to our interpretation, though we were also given an except from a philosopher to read on the idea of nothing. This is where my spark came from for my approach, but I did struggle with how to visually show my ideas.

The nothing in this case is us as humans after giving our lives over to technology. Inceasingly in our world, computers are becoming everything. I am not against computers (obviously, or I would not be writing this), but feel they need to be used as a tool and not everything. I find it odd when someone does not know an obvious bit of information and instead has to look it up online. Or someone cannot do math... or spell a word without the internet... or find their way around a city without GPS, especially in my area where most streets are numbered and very few have names. Without my knowledge my brain becomes nothing, thus my life becomes nothing.

I initially was going to make a sculpture of a person literally hooked up to a computer through a USB port. The literal is where I was going wrong though. I was only ok with it and not in love with this visual. Finally, it came to mind to create a human figure and hang them from an electrical cord. I am sparing this final piece with you though and am only showing you the doll I created.

Here she is before painting and assembly. Sorry for the horrible photograph. She is made with a paper mache base and then covered in paper clay, which air dries.

And here she is painted. I am not totally in love with how she came out, but surprisingly, I liked scuplting her. I have been thinking of trying my hand at doll making but was a little apprehensive about it because I have never done it before. This project pushed me to do it though and I am glad for it.

It's her legs that I do not care for. I was working with a limited amount of the paper clay, so they just turned out a little odd to me. I was also trying to paint her so she appeared dead, or at least near dead, so her face isn't how I would make another doll.

Our last project for this class is based on the idea of a dwelling. We are to use wood (the first cuts with the bark-I don't remember what they are called right now) and another material. I have a couple ideas right now, but want to put them down on paper before I think further about them.

That's all for now for school. We have about a month left of this semester, which seems like a lot of time and no time all at once. I will be taking a drawing class this summer, so this series will run until June before I decide if I will continue it through the summer. My fall semester does not include any art classes, just a sewing class and some lectures that relate to my minor in textiles. After that, next spring is my last semester and I will be working on my baccalaureate show that is required before I graduate. I already know it will involve art quilting, so this studio series may be used to document my progress over this upcoming summer (I want to be prepared before proposing my work for the exhibit). Well, I'm just thinking out loud now.

Be back later today with my Finish-a-Long plans for quarter 2!