This week, I was finally able to work on my lithography drawing.The concept of the show is making portraits of ourselves in our most private living spaces- the places where we can feel most like ourselves. I started with the image of me lying in my bed, the place that I can feel completely comfortable.

My favorite thing about this medium is the lack of control of the lithography crayon mixed with water. I figured it would be best to accept the drips and let it take over the drawing to some extent. The next issue I had to tackle was incorporating the yarn. I was hesitant to begin with the fear of it ruining the look of the piece. I also needed to find a way to tie the yarn into the concept, so Hollis suggested I go with a dreamy feel. I began weaving the yarn into the vellum so that it would look as if colorful dreams were coming from my head. I really liked how it started to turn out.

The first week, our group decided to focus all of our energy on the yarn portion of our project, since we didn’t have the drafting vellum yet. We allotted each person 3 feet by 5 feet of vellum and took a trip to the gallery to see whose piece could go where.

My main goal for that day was to figure out how to do stitch my yarn into the vellum. I have no prior experience with fibers so it took me several tries to get the hang of it. At the beginning I was having issues with the vellum tearing or crinkling up when I poked the needle through, but after a while I got a little better at it. Heather taught me how to do the running stitch, so that is what I stuck with. Even though the trial piece is not much to look at, I was still proud of myself for hanging in there and forcing myself to learn something new and not give up.

Long days and night of work came through this week. The wire prepping was labor intensive and we came upon a lot of difficulties during the process. One of the first situations that came upon us was keeping proportions right. Once we had the nose develop and continued with the other parts of the face, we realized a few things: 1)That the sculpture was getting too big, and 2)The parts had different proportions whatsoever.

Another situation that came across us was the fact that the wire twisting was very time consuming and we needed to figure out a way to make it faster. Thanks to the collective awesome minds of Gio and Dan, we came upon some great engineering to make that process faster. It was like watching sorcery. It was beautiful.

The face started coming together but we started facing another challenge. And that was that we were building from the floor up when the actual piece is intended to be hanging. As of the moment, the sculpture was restructure to be able to distribute the weight evenly and not sacrifice form.

While working I kept on wondering how we could strengthen the the concept of the project and how the piece could have a better readability. How could we deliver the message across. The idea behind the project is how we are more than the struggles and difficulties that we go through; how we are more than what people perceive in the moment. The drawing, the sculpture is just an impression of what we see, of the people we are drawing. This drawings, as good as we could make them, could never come to say who this people really are, who this person is.

This sculpture represents the different layers that makes who we are, but most importantly who we think this person is. Perception. However, I had the idea that instead of posting more impressions of people on the back wall we could instead have statements of people saying who they are. Basically stating that there is more to them that meets the eye, that they are more than the struggles and difficulties that they are going through or they have had. This very small statement would say who they are, saying it to the world how amazing, How kind hearted they are. How much love is inside of them. That there is more to you that meets the eye.

However, I still needed to find a way to incorporate the drawings. On one of my breaks from working in the sculpture i came across a dumpster from a construction. I wonder what if i added broken pieces of rubble to the bottom of the piece, creating a sense that something has been broken and out of all that rubble still the wire (inner structure) is there. How this could be a strong symbol of shattering perceptions. And then I thought about adding the portraits to the rubble. All that beginning space that occupies the sculpture will symbolize perception. Then the back wall will have the statements in a very light shade of grey. This will force the viewer to actually get close and let this people tell them who they are.

What do you guys think?

On this week  the team split up its responsibilities. Part of the group was focusing on portrait development, while the other help with the wire bending and prepping for the sculpture building.

The first progress critique came in and we had some helpful feedback into how the drawings interacted overall with the wire structure as well as how we could show the portraits in the gallery wall. Overall, there was difficulty understanding how the drawings related with the overall concept and the wire structure.

During this week we focused on the concept development for the piece, the logistics on how we were going to develop the project, and how the introduction of 2d drawings would fit with the overall concept.

I focused on the concept art for the wire sculpture/drawing and the final look of it.

For week two I have mostly finished with my work with the litho crayon. Even since this photo I have embroidered each of three figures and animals in the image. We plan to have yarn connecting from the images to the interior space of the gallery and to each other.

David Spriggs is an artist who has been showcasing his works with layers since about 2001. He has worked on a variety of media such as glass, acrylic, and transparent film, using acrylic paint or engraving to draw pieces of the final image. By drawing only parts on each sheet, it creates a depth that recedes both visually and physically from the viewer. His use of lighting in each piece can often make them appear to be holograms within the film ‘screens’ that often occupy a very large space. Some works fill an entire room but even the smallest pieces are several dozen cubic feet. Each illusion, though, only works from certain angles. By walking around a piece, the viewer no longer sees a singular image but can distinguish the layers upon which each part of the image lays. Interestingly, Spriggs prefers not to hide the layers of his works, instead letting viewers see all angles of the pieces. This allows them to be seen both as a singular image and as a sculptural form.

We left off at the last post with a fully cut demo and hopes for a great project ahead! In the past week we have made lots of progress on the box, the lighting and the gallery  Ωinstallation planning.

The Box:

We have all six panels cut at this point. Two may wish to revisit the laser cutter for touch ups or additional detail. upon assembling the cube, we had some difficulties fitting the pieces together but after some sanding everything fits very well! We will not permanently assemble the cube until last minute to allow us flexibility with lighting options.

The gallery:

Currently we are painting a new wall to hang in the gallery! Since our project requires darkness to glow properly, we had to construct a wall to allow enough darkness for the shadow effect to be strong. The wall is made out of two doors joined together with dry wall tape and spackle. we joined the doors with metal fixtures and added more metal fixtures to the top of the door to hang it as an additional wall in the gallery. For the ceiling in the gallery we plan to hang a strong fabric to allow the shadows to be displayed nicely. We are going to put that fabric up tomorrow along with the wall.

Lighting:

We are still playing with lighting, however the larger cube is making the shadows much easier to distinguish. Later today we will work more intensely with the lighting.

All around:

So far we are on track, we are handling small problem as they arise but we will be very ready for the opening!

This week, the group moved onto a more constructive phase. We each had the opportunity to cut our panels with the laser cutter, and we began construction on the extra wall that will hang in the gallery. We attatched two door panels together with brackets, and spackled them together. From there, we began priming and painting the wall, as well as assembling the cube and testing the lighting.

We are on a steady roll for the final week!

This week we finally got the wire on Thursday and started wrapping.  Being that it was in its beginner stages I was asked to make more portraits since Javi was wrapping.  This week I made 3 successful portraits that I believe are good enough for the show.  The idea has changed now that we are in the final stretch, and once I am back from vacation we are having a group discussion about it.  But these portraits have been my contribution to the project.