Week 7: Trophy Part 2 and Sculpture

Week 7: This week, we finished off our trophies and began working on a sculpture using a type of woodcut that allows for flexibility and shaping into different and seemingly impossible shapes when using simple wood boards.

Craft: For the craft, I used the following equipment: Adobe Illustrator, a Mac computer, flash drive, a laser cutter, Baltic plywood, tape, a straight edge, wood glue, a paintbrush, acrylic paint, and lacquer. Most of these are the same materials that I have used last week. The materials that were not were the brush, paint, and lacquer. Adobe Illustrator was used to create the file of the new sculpture in which the laser cutter would use as a guide to cut out the shapes of the design that I had created. The laser would cut out the shapes, and the wood glue would blind the shapes together forming a single shape. Paint was used to seal the wood and the lacquer to give it a nice finish. As I had stayed away from tabs this time for my sculpture, it was much easier to construct. The hardest thing to conceptualize and construct would be the flexible panel of wood. But after a little research, I was able to construct my own version of the design. However, I was less than successful, but, never the less it proved adequate. The concepts of space was used because it involved making sure that the figure or sculpture took up space in a meaningful and interesting way.

Composition: For the composition of this project, I first started off by finishing the trophy by painting it with black and white acrylic paint. After several coats, I then sprinkled using a brush white paint for a nice speckled look for the base. Following the paint drying, I then proceeded layer on lacquer waiting several hours per coat. Due to the substance, I had to wear gloves in order to protect my hands from the very viscous lacquer. While the trophy was drying, I switched my attention to the sculpture in illustrator. We were tasked with incorporating an irregularity into the sculpture. In this case, it was the flexible woodcut. I had the idea of an animals and so a snake-like body would suffice. However, this proved difficult because I had to miscalculated the circumference of the circles and this I to improves the body of the sculpture as it was now not compatible with the original design. After cutting the shapes out and improvising a new design, I then proceeded to lacquer the individual shapes before glowing them together. before It proved a challenge and there were some imperfections that need to be sanded down and some new design elements which had to be cut using a knife. Making sure the shape and the dimensions were right was important in getting scale and the shape perfect.

Concept: The concept of the trophy was to create a work for a member of the Saint Xavier community. It could be an artist or a friend or a colleague. I chose a friend, my roommate. The reasoning for the simple base and pillar design is because of the pragmatic nature of it all. My roommate, the subject of this trophy is a very pragmatic person. As such, I decided to create a trophy that shares in his personality. The centerpiece was done in the shape of the Czech Republic, the homeland of his paternal line. Combined, I believe I have captured his personality and heritage well. As this sculpture class is about shape as it is self and place, I had to keep those in mind. For the place, the centerpiece draws the viewer into the concept of the land of the Czech people. The shape represents a vast land despite its small size. The self is in regard to the person in which this piece is done for. I created everything in relation to his person. It is tall like he is. For the sculpture, I wanted the sculpture to be animal-like. I initially desired the concept to be that of a squat crab-like creature with the flexible wood cut surrounding the round body. However, the size was far too great for the circle and so I had to re-purpose it to be a snake or slug-like creature. The space in concept is the 'body' of the creature sculpture is the twisted flexible woodcut. All these things were concepts that I took into consideration when planning and constructing these sculptures.