sculpture

This project was a ton of fun, but also incredibly complicated. I began by sketching out what I imagined my final project would look like. The sketch was broken up into different, organic shapes. Following the sketch, I had to figure out how to construct each shape using a thick, cardstock paper, almost like origami. I looked at the shape, then in my mind, unfolded it, to finally construct it as a 3D shape using paper, precise folding, and a bit of strong glue.

After constructing each shape, making sure they fit together in the way I had imagined, seamlessly, I began selecting a singular place to photograph. I landed on my backyard. I went out and took around 100 photos of objects, nature, etc. in my backyard. I had the photos printed, and then began the process of piecing them together. The goal of this step was to match different photographs up, so they would flow together. For example, in the bottom right hand corner of my piece, one can see that the flower is made up of two different flowers, but I made sure the edges matched up perfectly. 

After puzzling my photographs together, I painted each shape with wall paint, then cut and pasted each photograph collage on certain shapes. I wanted to make sure there was a good balance between the blue and the photo collages. Finally, I glue them all together, attached them to a sturdy backing, and I had my finished product. This was such a unique project and really opened my eyes to the importance of patience while creating art because it can ensure one really loves their final product!

Creating this project was difficult, but incredibily rewarding. I had never created anything using wood and wire, so learning how to cut, sand, and weld everything together, which was honestly a bit scary at first. This was done in collaboration with the piece above as the project brief directed me to create an organic shape out of wood and wire, representing the place I originally photographed (my backyard), plus two random objects. I decided to use a leaf (represented by the wood), a spray bottle trigger (represented by the welded wire), and the stamen of a flower (represented by the waving wire). 

To begin, I sketched six designs, landing on the design you see above. After sketching each piece of my project onto a piece of wood, I cut out each piece individually using a jigsaw. I began gluing the pieces of wood together, then clamping them in between to ensure they were well attached. After 24 hours, I was able to start sanding them down. To give you a better example of what this piece looked like before hours of sanding, imagine a staircase of wood where the large slope is in the bottom middle picture. After the wooden sculpture was done, I sprayed it with polyurethane to give it a slight shine. 

After sanding the piece, I began welding the metal. This was the hardest part for me as I am not a huge fan of fire. It took me a few tries to connect the wires together, but in the end, it worked out! Finally, I worked on bending the wires hanging down from the wood. After all the wire was ready, I spray-painted it navy blue. Finally, I connected the wire to the wood. Even though it was intimidating at the start, I feel that this piece turned out the way I envisioned it!