Thesis Entry 3

Following suggested paths. Where shall toiling fingers travel? Familiar materials, form, and assembly. Construction cylindrical Sona tubing takes to a new identity, embracing a more feminine side. Wrapped in female youth patterned fabric, adorned with pink frilling skirts about the entry hole and ends. On the interior, a painted white base upholstered by bubble wrap. Newly introduced, install orientation and gaping entry hole for the viewer to flex his or her physical interactive inquisitive investigation. With the tendency to lightly allude to female genitalia, the viewer may be comforted by his or her re-entry into the fallopian tube. I tempt the viewer to insert his or her head into a curious inviting hole, question the space, and perhaps find themselves either comforted or bothered. The viewers’ own biological acceptance of origin will dictate his or her experience.

Thesis Entry 2

Sand, saw, chisel, polish, weld, drill, screw, thread, glue, mount; Continuation and completion of artworks mentioned in the first entry. Sweaty and heavy breathing, followed by a sigh of relief, two completed art objects. First a hand worked piece of solid wood, receiving a metal slab then mounted by five Petri dishes of saw dust. Wood displacement and replacement, the main theme of this line of thought. Hung on the vertical axis, asymmetry and material juxtaposition create intriguing lines of design.

Awake until the wee hours of the morning; a time I feel most inspired and productive. More so a period for mental productivity, foreboding the use of power tools and welding machines. Finalizing the last steps to completion. Propelled by the rewarding feeling of completing any project. Two works feel all that much more satisfying.

Thesis Entry 1

Beginning by accepting the inevitable end. Faces no longer. Creative energies gone along with their hosts. And so, with the first sculpture of the school year I lament. Confronted by the loss of creative souls long since gone, released from the clutch of academia. Inspired by the remembrance of a couple fellows. Liam Jennings and Chris Alferman, both sculptors and workers of wood. In abandoned leftovers from the semester past resurfaced a wood and metal work by Chris Alferman. Compelled to recycle the materials and modify an idea I recovered the work’s metal appendage. Paired with a polished slice of wood similar in grain and softened edging to a slab Chris once used. In my modification wood accepts metal, giving to its weight. As a fallen slab of metal cradled by a slab of wood. Found Petri dishes filled with recycled saw dust from the wooden slab’s sanding accompany the metal slab. Their mounting pulls from the presentation appeal in many of Liam’s wooden works.

Intergraded wood, metal, and glass; a combination I find so soothing. A timeline of human technological progression, up till the age of steel. All processed yet natural in origin. Looking back through time reflecting on the past; so I lament, gather my self and start again.

Unacquainted material. Corrugated polycarbonate UV protective awning roofing (Sun Tuff). Lonesome 12ft giants standing erect at the back of a studio untouched for years longingly await for a creative soul to bring them to new life. A material for in-depth study through artworks at the crest of creation. One idea met the break of the wave. A curious material yearning to flex its stiff conventional posture, stretch along corrugated lines, and take free form. Rolling curvature. Slight altercations to the material’s form and function, while maintaining its installation method and identity as a sort of skin. A conservative manipulation to conventional construction methods. Cut out scrolling “French curve” shapes in plywood, spread about a foot and a half apart, 5’8” in total, create a mounting structure for the awning material. The mounting structure mimics conventional building techniques. 26” wide lengths of polycarbonate stretch across wooden slats and form to contours of the wooden armature. Completed the work is mounted on a wall and slightly above average human height, in hopes to evoke a sense of invaded personal space if the viewer treads near. The work will develop through progression.

Bike project

At first I was really just interested in recreating a childhood vehicle I had so loved, a symbol of adolescent freedom. When coming to the final aesthetics of the work I thought that I may take this play of childhood a bit further and actually morph the bike structure into a carousel/hobby horse. Only after the linkage of children and carousel/hobby horses did I realize that perhaps the original design of the bike was in fact based upon the idea of riding a horse. All the elements align a reign could easily be handle bars, a saddle= the seat, stirrups=peddles, legs of the horse= even pulling mechanisms (wheels)on either end of the bike. The likeliness of the design of a bicycle to the structure of a horse is undeniable. It seems almost impossible for bicycles to not have been influenced by the act of riding a horse. Despite whether I am right or wrong I believe this connection reveals a very appropriate subconscious end result of my sculpture. A result I am much pleased with and hope the viewer is as well…

So Long

I am now in the mists of completing the "Rock Lobster" (bronze piece), polishing up a subsequently poured bronze hermit crab, some aluminum antlers, and an adult sized Big Wheel. The final plans for the lobster include submerging the bronze sculpture into a cast block of resin in the shape of a pot. As it stands now the lobster is unengaged. The resin pot will help create a narrative, assist in a more interesting presentation, and still allow for the viewer to admire the detail of the bronze sculpture.

Once there were two pets, and I a neglectful owner. Despite how stylish and decadent, they were but cold blooded crustations. For the sake of art and my lacking to meet the needs of these rank creatures, I became a cold blooded killer. Yes I killed my pets my Christmas presents. It was irresponsible and bitter, but the love wasn't there we tried cuddling but their pinching was far more than playful. I could no longer take the abuse, I was covered in suspicious bruises and cried endlessly for nights on end when they'd take off, refuse to answer my calls, only to return drunk. It was something like battered-wife-syndrome that drove me to the edge. So I suffocated the bastards in slurry, built up a shell to encase the beasts, singed their souls with licks of flame from hell, and finally poured a molten metallic liquid upon the remains. Now stands the bronze relic of an ungrateful pet, why I never even felt they were worthy of names. They will be returned to their fabulous silver shells, and perhaps become "Ice" pieces dangling from a chain/string or maybe even a broche. I have made them immortal, and as an Indian giver I will return the present back to the one whom bestowed the creatures upon me. Hopefully she will not be offended that I felt her gift would look much better in bronze.

The aluminum antlers are simply cut at a Euro-mount style, a concept-less piece. It was a test to see how much I could manipulate the white foam; therefore I did not invest much thought in this trial piece. In short controversial track meets set me back, I wasn’t able to come up with any suitable ideas, and I tried to make something in a few hours. This piece either needs much more work to meet my satisfaction or I should just give up on it. Eventually it'll make it to my bed room where the rest of my creepy work resides. Gosh! I'll never get laid!!! and I ain't J/K-ing YOU!

Ehhhh...The bike project. As mentioned above I intend on creating an adult sized Big Wheel. The Big Wheel was a popular toy from the 70's through the 80's. They ceased production in 1994 due to the safety issues on the difficult visibility of a low riding child's vehicle. Perhaps one of the saddest days of my childhood was when I had grown too big for my Big Wheel. I tired everything, peddling with legs slung over the handle bars, kneeling on the seat to ride it as a scooter, but no matter what it was never the same. Upon completion my fellow classmates and I will be given the chance to relive those glory days. Nothing to impressive.

On another note, I would like to do so much more with the bike assignment yet it requires more motivation and enthusiasm than I can find in myself right now. Week after week I've been given the chance to prove my self worth to the track team and just as frequently I've failed to perform, receiving the disappointment of myself, my coaches, my team, my parents, and my hometown. Just about every weekend this semester I lost my self confidence little by little, now there's really not much left. In this solitary lifestyle it’s become much too difficult to press on as I have. I feel this may clear up and I will redirect myself on a new path in a matter of weeks, though it won’t be in time for the due date of this project. I apologize for the sub par outcome of this piece and my defeated demeanor in advance.

Plaster Post

It has long since my last entry. Nevertheless, I have remained heavily occupied by the realms of academia and health management. As last week was spring break I took the opportunity to do some healthy normal sleeping and visit the Museum of Arts and Design, the MOMA, and the Whitney. The MA&D currently featured exhibit is Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art an collection of work I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciate greatly. I'd highly recommend seeing this show, especially for someone interested in green art. The MOMA has a show on Edvard Munch, and the Whitney is holding the biennial. Despite these break delights I also did my usual work outs, nude modeled, personal research, planned my fall schedule, organized computer files, socialized, worked at Home Depot, planned future/ hypothesized artwork, prepared for the upcoming sophomore review; over all returning order back to my life all just lose control again for the next six weeks. Preceding the break I was on average sleeping 3 hours every other day, had been eating will sleeping (a combination of sleep walking and eating while doing so), spending an enormous amount of my time in the studio. Now as the spring track season is about to pick up I must resort back to maintaining a better state of health, which will ultimately result in a forced down sizing of my art ideas.
Currently in sculpture we are working in plaster, using materials such as clay to make easy and simple molds. Using the remaining parts of a found doll featured in my only short film, “Robot Movie”, as well as another trash treasure doll of 3ft proportions I am incorporating chicken wire, hair, and plaster into doll part molds. I am looking to achieve some sort look of decrepitating body structure. Considering the state of dismemberment the “Robot Movie” doll already happens to be in, after a terrifying run in with a paintball gun, I thought I would reconstruct the doll’s body using the materials mentioned above to fill the hollow cavities of the remaining body parts to sculpt an altered reconstructed body. To make the constructed parts look as though they are exposed muscles, tendons, and fat I will mix in an iron oxide pigment and dilute it somewhat to achieve the play of deep reds and whites in various areas better resembling muscle and fat. Those are the plans as of now, as mentioned before my ideas often are a bit too ambitious and so for the sake of my health this may not be plausible, but we’ll see. However, if I happen to die while sky diving on Sunday this all wont make a bit of difference, lets hope for the best.

temporary post

Concurrent Casting

As a result of attempting to free my mind in order to achieve the type of creation process required for the found object assignment, I ended up creating a rather interesting amorphous wax form using a dipping process to build up texture. Later I went back into the piece and used a soldering iron to create as many crevices as I possibly could without sacrificing the strength of the structure. Eventually I achieved creating what is likely to be one of the most difficult and annoying cast to remove shell from, but that’s what I do. Without at least some level of difficulty I probably wouldn't be very interested in creating the sculpture.


Along with this forced bout of free thinking I came across a personal discovery. While cleaning up the work space I came across a thin piece of wax floating in a tray of water, intrigued by its organic form I began thinking how about I could use the properties of water and wax to create my own organic free form. I then boiled a pot of wax and poured the liquid wax into a large bucket of water; the wax became instantly solidified upon hitting the water. After achieving what I hoped would happen I further experimented with water temperature to see how the wax would react. Hot water allowed the wax to expand more before solidifying while cold water created more constricted forms; as could be expected. I personally favored the outcome of wax poured into room temperature water. The formations remind me of the release of molten lava along the sea floor due to plate tectonics. I assume the lava would react to the water creating a similarly shape form. Within these structures there is so much negative space that it would almost be impossible for myself to cast and clean. So I have yet to find an artistic application for this new found knowledge.


As always more pictures are provide on my webshots site (under the album "Amorphous Figures)----> http://community.webshots.com/user/SocialAwkwardness

Found Object (New Direction)

I've taken apart and packed up the compiled collection of objects which had produced the images for "Young, Single, and Pregnant" and am now headed in a new direction. This direction is based upon the collaboration of a couple smaller parts of "Young, Single, and Pregnant". These parts consist of a pink wax candle, an intricate test tube, and a bit of red wax. Although these are parts different from more overall original set up they will still hold the same theme. I will be making somewhat of a replica with re-creations of the mentioned parts fastened together. Rather than a transparent glass tubing I will be making an object similar in form, consisting of concrete form tubes, chicken wire, something to connect them together and probably plaster for contour. I will also be making a larger version of the wax candle. If there were more time I would like to sculpt a wax figure of fertility out of bronze and then mold it into the base of the candle so that it would slowly become revealed upon the melting of the wax. Also I'd like to possibly place a portable DVD player inside the hollow tubing, featuring and film about teen pregnancy or just birth. In order to do that I would have to find my long since missing portable DVD charger. Surrounding the DVD player would be soft fabric of warm hues, again creating a womb-like state. To see the video one would have to crawl to the ground, but I believe propping a mirror on an angle in front of the tubing opening so that the DVD player screen will project the image upward and provoke viewer to come down to the proper level of viewing. If I can rig speakers up the other run offs on the tubing it would help spread the sound. Finally reaching this idea with but a week left I highly doubt all these sub-interests can be achieved. The main thing is that I get the tubing and flower down, the fertility figure, and DVD will only act as supportive additives if I am able to manage it into the available time left. Images of the model object are presented on my webshots page under the Found Object album.