Author: Naomi Malone

3.

Bob Jones, Wire Sculpture, Wire & Clay

I will incorporate the use of wire and clay in my piece and how the wire is exposed.

4.

One of the things that stood out to me the most from the video was that she was able to take things that she found around her and manipulate them to tell a story. More specifically, I think of the tree stumps and their roots that she used in one of the pieces for her installation. She was able to use nature to depict grief and show balance. I also like how she used the room that her pieces were in to complete her work. I liked how she ordered her pieces in a way that people would observe them starting on the right of the room and working their way around. I also thought it was interesting how she finished some of her pieces as she was installing them. With the tree roots, she added foam and painted parts of her piece in the exhibition room, as it was being installed. To me, it makes her whole art process more genuine for some reason. Like the work is never truly done, and there is never a perfect image that’s being sought after. The art is allowed to take whatever form it wants in a way, and I find that beautiful. Another thing I found interesting about the video was her lack of safety equipment. For example, when she was welding without gloves or eye protection. It was so interesting to see after being told how important safety is in class. It was like knowing the risk that comes with using different tools and seeing someone just ignore it.

1. Choose a Topic:

Paradox: Sometimes you have to end a friendship so that you don’t become who they think you are

Question: Am I who I think I am? (The concept of beauty and body dysmorphia)

2. Consider and Clarify Your Topic:

What question/problem did you choose?

Am I who I think I am? (The concept of beauty and body dysmorphia)

Tell why you chose this topic and why it matters to you.

I chose this topic because I feel like many people struggle with body dysmorphia and the feeling of not being enough or perfect. I also wanted to work more with the materials that I’ve used in both Sculpture I and II. I want to work with clay, I think, and the thought of clay and the question I chose reminded me of marble sculptures. Combining these two thoughts led to the question that made and gave me an idea of what I want to do for my project.

Give some details on the problem/question – explain in depth.

For my question, “Am I who I think I am?” I will be addressing body dysmorphia. I want to make a sculpture that resembles something close to a stone sculpture by Michelangelo, like The David. I want that part of the sculpture to just be a female body without a head. If I do add a head, I don’t want the face to be recognizable. I also want there to be a mirror that distorts the reflection of the sculpture. The warped reflection is supposed to represent how despite what you actually look like, your mind can distort reality and make you feel less than. I want to use stone and marble sculptures as reference for my piece because I feel like they have a way of capturing the beauty of the human body in a truly unique way.

List out 10 tangible people/places/things that are associated with your question/problem.

• Mirror
• Scale
• Michaelangelo 
• Male Body 
• Female Body 
• Instagram
• Camera
• Stone Sculpture
• Sharp metal
• Puddle

Find and print an image for each of the 10 people/places/things that you listed above.

• Distorted Mirror
  • 
• Scale
  • 
• Michaelangelo
  • 
• Male Body
  • 
• Female Body
  • 
• Instagram
  • 
• Camera
  • 
• Stone Sculpture
  • 
• Sharp metal
  • 
• Puddle
  • 

I don’t have any pictures of before my maquette was cut up, but the pictures shown still give a general idea of what I was going for. The person made out of wire will sit on top of the skull.

I looked at Doris Salcedo. She spoke about how she leaned into the fact that she comes from a third world country, Colombia, and how that is the inspiration behind her art. She talked briefly about how if she were to be labeled with anything, she would want it to be that she’s from a third world country. I appreciated how she spoke openly about the struggles of her ideas and the knowledge she shared being taken as less than when compared to the knowledge shared by someone from a first world country. It goes to show how many barriers are present that block minorities from excelling. It can be 10 times harder to get to the same place as someone who fits into the majority. Salcedo drawing inspiration from third world countries and making pieces that shed light on the hard reality of living in a third world country that is typically looked over, is really powerful. It’s like some of her pieces are snapshots of history and I like that. 

I watched the video titled “10 Bullets” by Tom Sachs. In the video, he went over the 10 “bullets” or rules of the studio. The way that the video was shot, with splices of random somewhat unrelated clips, reminded me a lot of the YouTube videos from the 2010s. Like with bullet number five, “I understand”, footage from an art studio was spliced with soldiers in war. The 2010s feel of the video makes sense because the video was made 14 years ago, but it really brought me back while watching it. It also, in a weird way, reminded me of Fantastic Mr. Fox or just Wes Anderson movies in general. I think it was his commentary and the camera angles throughout the video that reminded me of the director’s films. In general, I think that this video was definitely applicable to the art studio for Sculpture II. For example, bullet 7, “Keep a list” is definitely going to be important as we continue throughout the rest of Project 2 and most likely in Project 3. Having a record of what you need to get done and how you’re going to divide and conquer is important. Overall, I like the way the video was formatted and I will try and take away tips that I watched.

1. Choose, Consider, and Clarify your Topic (200 words)

The phenomenon I want to focus on will either be The Creation of Adam or the human skull with the brain exposed, drawing inspiration from Da Vinci’s drawings of the skeletal system. As a Biomedical Engineering student, I have always been drawn to the human body and why it functions the way that it does. Making a piece focusing on the skull and brain directly ties into that curiosity. I want to use some of Da Vinci’s sketches of human anatomy as a foundation and reference for my work because he too was curious about the human body and how it worked. He is a prime example of the intersection of art and science. He also believed that the skull, specifically the area behind the center of the frontal bone, was where the soul presided. If I go with this idea, I want to work off of the uniqueness of the soul and how it interacts with the mind. My other idea for this project, The Creation of Adam, would be focused around the hands in the painting. I want to play with the idea of community and how relationships, in any respect, between people aren’t guaranteed. Sometimes, you’re just in the right place at the right time to meet someone that will alter your life forever. Sometimes, you’re only friends with someone for a short window of time in your life, and sometimes, you live beside one person for your entire life. Human connection is needed for survival, but there’s no blueprint for how to connect with one another; we just sort of do it continuously throughout our lives. I want to work with the painting, how they are almost touching, but aren’t quiet. I don’t really know who the audience for my piece will be yet, but I’ll figure it out as I start making it.

2. Visual Research

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vQNKMxQjqQqDBpedGTrl6F_-mkeWbA4khWLHwodkxfM/edit?tab=t.0

3. Borrow a Strategy

Wooden Skull Carving by Cody Bader

I think I might use the idea of the holes at the top of the head in my piece to show deterioration or the breaking/tearing of the skull.

4. Create Sketches (5 Sketches)

I have chosen to work with a painted, wooden rooster, which is a semi-realistic sculpture that resembles a male chicken. 

I think the rooster, in a generalized sense, represents the start of the day and agriculture. They are known for being the leader of their flock, protecting hen, and crowing. I always associate roosters with an alarm due to them crowing in the morning. 

For me, the rooster reminds me of a porcelain rooster that my grandparents have in their kitchen. It is used as a decoration piece underneath their cabinet and it brings back fond memories of childhood visits to their house. I used to visit at least once a year during the summer when I was younger. Every time I was there they would cook a big meal for everyone and everyone would help in the kitchen. The rooster for me reminds me of summer, childhood, and family and I think of the object very fondly.

I think I want to explore the idea of time or cooking in my project. I want to lean into the idea of what a rooster symbolizes. I am also thinking about touching on sexism and patriarchy in a household. Using something related to women in the kitchen. I remember seeing propaganda posters from the 50s or 60s about women in the kitchen cooking chicken, so I might do something along those lines, but with a rooster cooking chicken, symbolizing how people tear each other down more than anything else and playing on the “idea” that women belong in the kitchen.