Sculpture Final Project

SCULPTURE FINAL PROJECT

Animated Bones

9 in tall (being held, 13in from head to tail tip laid flat), 4 in wide

        Being allowed to try anything this time, I decided to attempt a long term dream of mine: to create an art doll.  These are posable figures created with clay elements (usually just the head and feet, occasionally other embellishments), a wire armature connecting them, and finally quilt batting cover with fabric to put meat on the bones.  These figures have always fascinated me, partly due to them often being fantastical creatures, but also due to the ability to move in any way.  Articulation is a huge interest of mine deeply rooted in my childhood of playing with my brother's actions figures (or even my own stuffed animals).  His action figures could move in any way you pleased, allowing for endless stories to be enacted without limitations and breathed life into the figures as they did your bidding.  As a result, much of my art has leaned into that unlimited options I experienced as a child at play, focusing on movement and fluidity.

       Without much plan in mind, I began sculpting what I originally intended to be a dragon but quickly turned into a skeletal dinosaur, inspired from my own bone shorthand developed from years of doodling.  I painted and then varnished the clay, preparing to move to the next them of assembly.  All seemed well until I quickly ran into problems with the clay I was using, it completely resisted direct contact with the varnish, and without that the paint around the holes would chip.  So I naturally tried the next closest sealant, white glue.  Once again, the clay resisted this and the white glue also peeled off.  I assumed this was due to the clay's ability to be reactivated with water (therefore never truly drying), and unable to wait through any more lengthy dry times on a clay with such a detrimental property I opted to keep going.

        Troubles continued as I attempted to create a wire skeleton to attach the bones.  Perhaps I lacked the proper wire or the skills to work with wire, but either way I was very dissatisfied with my final skeleton.  Hoping it would get better, I tried covering a small section with fabric, but without the quilt batting to keep the wire from sliding around inside I found it unmanageable.  Finally ditching everything but the clay pieces, I pivoted to another movable figure type, a marionette.  I'd always been somewhat interested in marionettes, mostly due to watching the 1965 movie The Sound of Music frequently as a kid and being fascinated with the yodeling puppets.  Instead of wire, I now used yarn to string together the pieces.  Once again trouble came as I had not designed the pieces for the stringing process of a marionette, so the final result was not able to move like it's inspiration would.

        Although the final result isn't one I'm particularly proud of, the amount I learned going through the process is undeniable.  I discovered that clay quality does actually matter, the limitations of wire, and to ALWAYS test my materials together before proceeding with a project using unfamiliar materials.  Despite being displeased with the project, though I am my worst critic and all, I still hope the piece brings out that childlike fascination in others in the magical movement of toys like I had experienced growing up.  I also hope that the story behind the process helps encourage others in their own pursuits to not give up at first try, but to continue on until the final result is achieved.  I for one will not be stopping here and am eager to give this art form another attempt!

FINAL PHOTOS

Pile O' Bones

WORK IN PROGRESS

Head!

Feet!

Hands and Tail!

First test wiring

All pieces made

All pieces painted

Pieces drying after being varnished (the holes allowed them to be put onto rods for full coverage coats)

Wire Skeleton

Addition of fabric.  In hindsight it looked decent, but the feel and movement was very off from how I wanted it

Scrapping everything and moving onto yarn (I was in a fury that night hence the hectic background)

Found Objects

 FOUND OBJECTS

Flower Finds Friend

8 x 10 inches

        Flower Finds Friend combines found objects, re-contextualizing this source material into a new narrative.  The piece depicts an intimate scene of the meeting between two friends, a delicate moment to breathe personality into the mundane objects that the sculpture consists of.

        As an avid hoarder collector of trash found objects, I already had a large bag of things to pull from.  My goal was to not cover the original pieces at all, but purely to twist how they are percieved.  For example, the arms and legs are forks, which are designed for making food easier to eat.  However, in this context the utensils don't have the immediate connection to eating as they are positioned and bend like limbs.  This continues for the whole piece: a hair clip takes on eyes and teeth, a whistle becomes a head with a snoot, a razor becomes a bug-like body.  Unlike the wood sculpture, I wanted all connection points to be fairly obvious to highlight the separate objects, so the entire sculpture is connected with visible wire (no glue, and the only tape used to keep the bug support in place during transit).

    Upon making the initial figure I knew something was missing, and determined that he needed a friend and an environment to push the narrative.  I was inspired by the process of David Bird and his Becorns, creatures made of natural found objects that then interact with the wild environment.  There is always this fleeting moment captured in his photography where the Becorns interact seamlessly with wild animals, and I wanted to capture that energy, granted in a more controlled environment.  I did so by suspending the dragonfly in air and the figure waiting with an extended flower, hoping this would provide that same tension in that the dragonfly could part at any moment.  I felt this reinforced the piece into being more interesting and less of just a compilation of stuff.

        All of these objects I had been close to as they served their original purpose, and re-using them breathes new life and appreciation for what they have done.  Each one carries a story: the decades old hair clip given to me by my mom and used for years until the spring finally broke, green saran wrap once used for home-made Christmas advent calendars, or even the most recent flowers from a friend's finished project who gave away the extras.  The sculptures were assembled with care and consideration to the past stories to create a new one that highlights their significance.  By seeing the objects so carefully selected, the viewer can wonder why that object in particular was chosen and what it's past was before being used for this piece.  When stepping away, I hope that Flower Finds Friend will have viewers reflect on their own objects used in daily life, seeing them with more appreciation and curiosity as to what adventures they could go on.

WORK IN PROGRESS

After realizing I wanted to make a figure out of my objects, I did a very rough mock-up of a humanoid figure with forks.  A bit horrifying, I'll admit, but it gave me inspiration for the fork limbs

Assembled in one sitting, I created the base for the figure.  I wanted it to look as though he has also found these objects himself and assembled his own accessories

Him vibin'

He needed some touch-ups, like to fill out his skirt and something to finish off the top of the head.  I decided on a large bow to continue my color scheme and compliment the skirt

He needed a friend, so I constructed a small companion who's like a dragonfly bunny... thing.  Upon giving it wings I knew it needed to be suspended on the base somehow

The makings of a base (pot color later changed to match the color scheme better).  This base was too small and didn't give a change to really see the details of the figures.  I eventually decided on something less distracting as well

FINAL PHOTOS

Modeling and Mold Making

 

MODELING AND MOLD MAKING

Little People Chicken and it's Coop

        Before mold making could even come into the picture, I had to explore the medium I was making a model in.  The plasticine clay is soft but workable, though overall doesn't lend itself well to tremendous amounts of detail.  After fooling around with it's capabilities, I selected an object to replicate.  I choose a childhood treasure of mine, Little People Chicken.  This chicken was glued to my hands as a child, creating a "dedicated chicken hand." leaving only one free hand to work around.  The end of the Little People Chicken era came when I received a second one, in which my rights were revoked as I then had two dedicated chicken hands and no free ones.  The love Little People Chicken got created a dirt layer on the figure, preserving it from becoming sticky like the rest of the Little People we owned, allowing it to remain with me as it withstands the test of time.

        To me, the chicken embodies that child-like obsession and wonder that objects have, where one toy can be what an entire life revolves around with little consequences or reason.  Only in childhood can you cling to a toy and have it be socially acceptable, which feels strange based on how much joy one little item can bring.  I can only image the comfort of the chicken's constant presence especially with how naturally my hand curled around it, a comfort I will never being able to recreate as my hands have grown significantly and the mindset the chicken worked best in has passed.  However, the Little People Chicken is still adorable and I still retain a soft spot for that pudgy face.

        Little People Chicken lends itself well to mold making as it was originally created with a mold, though based on it's composition, it'd assume a different process than the one I was about to use.  Based on brief research, the chicken likely used hollow casting, in which a seamless object can be produced by putting the plastic through a hole in the bottom.  This method is done with an industrial setting, where any medium can be used with ease (metal, plastic, etc.)  However, the chicken is simple and has rounded edges, making it perfect for creating a replica with any medium.  In the end, my version came out ever so slightly bigger, likely due to the softness of the clay preventing full accuracy.

        When it came to mold making, the process was simple: create a temporary clay half to embed the chicken to pour the first side of silicon, remove all the temporary clay to pour the corresponding half of silicon, then plaster poured on each side to keep the mold secure from wobbling during the casting process, and finally cutting it open to create pouring/air channels to make the casts.  I ended up with four complete chickens, which I decided to paint various different colors (with one being a replica of the original colors).  I suppose I wondered if someone else held a chicken just like me, and making different colors was a call to think of the different journeys their chickens went on.

WORK IN PROGRESS

MODEL WIP

Messing with the clay, I created a swirly dragon

WIP of model chicken (the original was kept in a bag to keep it clean)

FINAL PHOTOS OF MODEL

MOLD MAKING WIP

I created a house to make my mold (the triangle at the top later perished so the mold was more flat while working on it)

I embedded the chicken into the clay

Putting the clay block into the mold

Removing the bottom of the mold box to then remove the clay.  Here's the chicken peeping out (I left a huge air pocket around the bottom of the model by accident which turned out to be a good thing when it came to removing the piece carefully)

First full chicken cast!

Four complete chickens (and one complete failure)

Painting

FINAL PHOTOS OF MOLD MAKING

Return of the dedicated chicken hand