Inspired by a water tower that I thought was a house when I was a kid. I really wanted to live in it, without realizing that I would drown if I tried.
AI Research – Cory Sanderson
Lily FauntLeRoy – Project 2 Part 1
I’m not sure which of my two ideas I like so I will be doing a write up for each.
- My health – mental and physical
One of the things I want more than anything is my health. I have struggled with my mental health or physical health or both for most of my life. Health struggles have been crippling in my life and have affected things that are important to me. The thought of waking up every day with a body that isn’t in pain and a head that isn’t overthinking is something I can hardly imagine. Physically I have spent the last 10 years dealing with hormonal and reproductive health issues, only in the last year was the word endometriosis even brought up and treatment still hasn’t come into the picture. Mentally I have struggled with depression, anxiety, ADHD, and some mood instability, as well as the mental effects of my ever-changing hormones since I was about 12. This is important to me because I am often debilitated by physical pain or plagued by intrusive thoughts that bar me from doing what I truly want or need to be doing. Our time on earth is so finite and the thought of spending so much of my time as a shell of myself scares me. There are a lot of obstacles for me in achieving my health:
- finding the right doctors (which has been very challenging)
- finding the time to drive how my doctors’ appointments
- lack of treatment
- finding the right medications
- it requires taking incredibly good care of myself
- learning disabilities sometimes make my mental health worse
- I had childhood epilepsy which led to a discovery of an overactive lobe in my brain which has been associated with my mood
- the looming thought every month that there will be 4ish days that month where I will likely be in excruciating pain
In my talisman I want to highlight:
- reproductive health and my hopes to have kids
- mental illness and the constant battle it is
- routine, and how much is helps me to maintain my help
- how far I’ve come with these struggles, how much more I could do without them
Keywords:
- health
- mental illness
- hormonal inbalance
- hopes for children
- imbalance
- feel the same every day
- pain
- resilience
- routine
- even
- help
2. “Perfection”
I have always had an imperfected, skewed version of what perfection is to me, and I have always strived for this ideal of mine. I am a perfectionist, which isn’t always great, but I have very high expectations of myself that I always aspire for. To be the “perfect” life I imagine begins with me being the “perfect” version of myself, to me that means being intelligent, successful, interesting, funny, passionate, loved, attractive, and challenged. I always strived to be an “anomaly”, someone who is unlike others.
There are many obstacles to this goal of mine:
- there is not such thing as perfection
- health and mental health issues
- unforeseen circumstances
- life happens
- the breadth of my goal
- my capabilities
Aspects I want to highlight in my talisman:
- success
- love & family
- finically stability
- that my version of perfect is imperfect
- learning
- challenges
- meaning
Keywords:
- perfection
- imperfection
- passion
- love
- intelligence
- success
- security
- happiness
- satisfaction
- future

In a direct, literal sense, my object is a boot. It is a sturdy piece of footwear that covers the foot and ankle designed to keep those body parts covered and warm. However, with it being red and having a holly on it, the boot can represent the holidays, especially Christmas and could be denoted as Santa’s boot. The holidays are a special time of year and are often associated with happiness and joy, which are the connotations my object carries. I feel excited when I think of Christmas and I want my object to be conceptually related to the spirit and magic of all the holidays for everyone and everything.
Teapot Research: Evelyn Pierce
For my object, I have chosen a teapot decorated to look like a cross section of a watermelon. Teapots have been used since as early as 1500 AD, and are essential in many cultures. They are utilized to steep tea leaves, or boil water to then make tea. When I think of a teapot, I think of comfort and relaxation, such as curling up by a fireplace with a good book on a winter day. Teapots also remind me of the traveling I have done with my family to Tokyo and London, two countries that are closely connected with rituals of having tea.
Within my project, I want to connect the teapot to its literal use rather than my figurative and emotional connections. I want to analyze the actions that go into lifting the pot, tipping it over, and having a stream of tea or water pour out. As outlined in my sketch, I am interested in suspending a teapot in a pouring position, and below it having partial casts of a teapot, each one getting larger as it ascends. This will give the illusion that the teapot is pouring out another teapot. Casting the pot out of wax would provide a pouring effect, and melted wax could be used to create a “stream” coming out of the spout of the pot and falling onto the teapot segments beneath.
Lily FauntLeRoy, Wildlife by Tony Cragg
1.Immediate Response
This reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are immediately. The scale of the three limps compared to the table is really impressive. I think it’s interesting that there are two reptile looking arms and a human hand. The ornate table is interesting, the scales on the leg and the carvings on the table have an interesting similarity between them. I also think it’s interesting that the artist chose to use a human hand and not a leg, I also thought it was interesting that the scale of the hand is larger compared to the reptile legs.
2. Objective Description
The sculpture has 4 distinct parts. A dark wooden table with ornate carvings sits on a tiled floor against a white wall. On top of the table is a plaster reptilian looking leg it’s large and the foot stands on the table. On the right side of the table another reptilian looking leg made of white plaster, it looks like it almost protrudes from the side of the table. On the other side of the table there is a large plaster human hand with its knuckles on the floor and its palm perpendicular to the floor.
3. Technical Decisions
The use of the dark hard wooden ornate table as the so called ‘base’ of the sculpture has a strong contrast with the white plaster used in the rest of the sculpture. The detail throughout the sculpture through both mediums is consistently intricate. The title Wildlife is interesting especially with the collection of a table, two reptilian looking plaster legs, and a human hand. The human hand rests against the table with its palm facing inward.
4. The Work in the World
The piece relates mainly to animals and humans alike, putting a reptile leg above a human hand, both made of the same material. It’s interesting that they chose reptilian looking legs because reptiles hatch from eggs juxtapose with a mammal, a human hand to be exact. The table looks old, which is interesting, it could easily be a valuable antique. The so-called wildlife is placed on an old well-built table.
5. The Story it Tells
The piece, called Wildlife, places human and reptile limbs with the same weight within the piece. Wildlife seems to conquer the manmade in this piece with the reptile leg assertively placed on the antique carved table. The placement of the reptile leg above the human hand seems to place the reptile above the human hand metaphorically. This seems to place humans as a part of wildlife and does not place as at the top.
Future Artifact, Tas Csikos
- Immediate Response
When I first stumbled across the piece ‘Future Artifact’ by Ivan Toth Depeña, I was instantly reminded of the classic Pixar movie: Wall-E. I began visualizing the scene where the Wall-E, the robot, is compacting and shooting out cubes of trash and arranging them in a similar fashion as the art piece. Upon closer inspection, I noticed homogeneity in the trash being used. They were all Pepsi cans? In my head, I exclaimed the obvious, ‘this must have something to do with the soda company,’ and started to search the background for any hints as to why the art piece was located there.
- Objective Description.
Future Artifact is a giant cube that must be two meters tall. It stands on one of its corners that is buried into a concrete slab on the ground with lights and anti-skateboard studs. The giant cube itself is composed of 4 by 4 by 4 compacted cubes of pepsi soda cans. The smaller cubes are smooth to the touch, indicating that they are either encapsulated in resin or inside some transparent container. These smaller cubes are sandwiched in place by shiny blue L-shaped brackets along the edges of the giant cube. In the background, there is outdoor restaurant furniture to the right and a subway station to the left.
- Technical Decisions
The description of the art piece gives a lot of background information that wasn’t apparent from visual inspection. The art piece was created from the remnants of the first pepsi bottling plant, and resides near to where the plant used to be. The crushed cans are sealed to give the impression that they are supposed to last a long time and serve as a ‘future artifact’. While the bottling plant no longer exists, the art acts as a memorial and a way to ‘remind viewers of the past’. It is possible that the artist wanted to include some ambiguity in this piece. It is up to the viewer to decide what this piece means to them.
- The Work in the World
To the average viewer, the art piece looks like a giant cube of trash. Judging by the materials used, this art piece does not serve as a commemoratory artifact to the first Pepsi bottling plant, but rather to criticize how much trash the world is producing. One interpretation is that the piece is foreshadowing a world similar to the world in the movie Wall-E, where the Earth becomes uninhabitable due to the vast amount of trash that we have generated.
- The Story it Tells
Although we are limited by the short description the artist provides us about the piece, it is clear that there could be many different interpretations of this art piece. Like I mentioned in the previous section, this piece might allude to the growing pollution problem we are facing in the word, but it could also convey how the surrounding community has developed after the demolition of the bottling plant, or the economic opportunities the plant brought with it. The piece is very well preserved, hence the name, and will serve to provide the history of the place for many years to come.
Art Report – Maizy Troxell
1. Immediate Response
When I first saw Jason DeCaires’ work I was blown away. I’ve always been really excited by art that features the interface of human infrastructure and nature. I love the way that nature always finds a way to reclaim human creations for its own. This is apparent in much of deCaires’ work, especially in the pieces featured in Museo Subacuático de Arte. To be honest, I’m not sure if the figures are meant to be interpreted as one giant sculpture, or as a gallery of many different pieces, but from both perspectives, the piece is very interesting. I have included 2 different pictures below, one of the ‘gallery’ as a whole, and one of a specific human form covered in sea life that is particularly interesting to me for discussion.
2. Objective Description
This underwater gallery features many human forms presumably made out of concrete or some other similar material. They come in all different shapes and sizes wear different types of clothing and bear different facial expressions. The figures are scattered in a way that doesn’t necessarily make sense, similar to a random congregation of people in a public space like a city park. You can tell that the sculptures have been submerged in the ocean for a while because they are weathered by the tides. Some figures are covered in different colored algae, coral, and other sea life such are barnacles and urchins.
3. Technical Decisions
I would also like to discuss the craftsmanship that went into the creation of these figures. From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like any of the figures are repeated. This means that there are at least 30-40 unique figures. They are also very detailed. Even after being weathered by the ocean you can still clearly pick up distinct emotions that each of the figures is feeling based on their facial expressions. Along with this, you can clearly see wrinkles in the clothing that the figures are wearing which is very impressive to me that the artist repeated this many different times with all different figures.
4. The Work in the World
I didn’t do much research into the background or purpose of this piece of artwork. However, in my mind, I like to think that maybe somehow this sculpture represents how people react and band together when bad news breaks on a big event. Most of the people have a look of grief or shock on their faces but besides this shared emotion, not much else seems to connect these people. The first historical event that comes to my mind that this piece could be a response to is 9/11 however since this sculpture was created by a British man and featured in Mexico in 2009 it seems unlikely.
5. The Story it Tells
After looking future into the purpose of Jason deCaires’ work I found that much of his art is in response to mankind’s negative effects on the planet. In this piece specifically, he sought to highlight the importance of the ocean as a source of sustenance and economic welfare globally. I found that he makes his sculptures out of pH-neutral, environmentally-sensitive materials to instigate natural growth. This means that the grief on the figures’ faces that I mentioned above is most likely in response to the ecological harm that humans have caused to the oceans and reef ecosystems. I hope that others interpret this art as a form of environmental protest and seek to make changes in their own lives to impact the planet in a positive way as a response to it.
Life Casting Exercise Spring 2018
Art Xpose
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