In the end, everything worked out just fine!

The space

Before we had been worried about the ceiling reflecting drew’s drawing clearly. We made a flat white surface for reflection  with a stretched canvas. We ripped the center and sewed it back up during installation. As for the amount of darkness, we finished and hung the hanging wall. It was not a dark as we had hoped, so we adjusted with adding blackout curtains. the space was dark an reflected the images just as we had hoped. However in the end the real problem to tackle was the light itself.

The lights

We created a structure of small flexible led lights which allowed each image to be clearer. The lighting was a tricky process, we ended up using about 6 different trial bulbs before one of our group members thought of the led light.

All in all the show was a success and I was very proud of our work. Not just our project but the whole class had great things to show.

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!

The opening:

The opening for the McColl center was very exciting. I loved Hollis’s work, and there were many other cool artists there.

One of them used a computer software to make random carvings on his paintings, which I found to be a stunning product. Looking at these works gave me an instant feeling of calmness, they moved me. I especially liked the cool colored pieces and the random strokes that were more long and ribbon like.

There was another artist who made large format carvings in wow which were held together by string. Steven is also working with currency as a subject, which I found very beautiful. I can’t wait to see the end result.

Upstairs there was a performance artist who was doing very interesting work with dance and theater elements.

All in all the work was phenomenal and I can’t wait to see the progress.

The open studio:

The open studio was very interesting. I had no idea what to expect, but it seemed to be fairly busy. People asked lots of questions that I would have never expected them to ask. It seemed like a very fun and engaging way for everyday people to have a met and greet with hard working artists.

This week my proposal for an installation was chosen and we have jumped right in!

The concept behind the piece is to project our dreams (which will be laser cut out of wood) as shadows on the wall. Essentially we are making a 18×18 wooden cube, each 6 sides will have one of our dreams and a strong light source on the interior will be projecting the images onto the walls. So hopefully we will be surrounded in shadows of dreams.

We managed to get some ideas down, work out the logistics and even cut our mock-up for the final. (shown above). This is my illustration, it is dead cows covered in lemons that I abstracted into very geometric and less representational shapes.

Below are some inspiration pieces to give an idea of the product.

I call my cardboard piece stale fruit. Despite its alluring appearance, this fruit has no flavor! And is argueably flat. I was inspired to make this piece by an old memory.

One time my family went to Boston, and my family has very thick southern accents, which up there are thought to show ignorance. My mom noticed that at the fruit market there were smashed fruit shaped tiles around the street, she said to my aunt “they dropped some fruit”, of course as a joke, and a Boston local explained to her that it wasn’t real fruit but a tile. My mom was fuming.

This versatile artists uses small triangles to show depth and perspective, bringing 2-D scenes to life. She is currently living and working in Los Angeles. Trained in a bunch of fields, she received a BA in Mathematics, Art, and Spanish from Greenville College in Greenville, IL and an MFA in Visual Art from Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California.

She works in sculpture, installation, and drawing/painting, and I found her most impressive work to be her massive wall drawings. “I’m currently influenced heavily by topography and the relationship between 2D, perpendicular planes and their distortions into 3D space. ” She says.

http://www.katyanngilmore.com

For our project we chose a site that had an interesting roots structure. We played with eh idea of building up sections of yarn while leaving others bare. The end result was a push and pull of attention around the area. The eye was more attracted to the built up areas and more disturbed by the plainer areas.

This is a good example of one of the built up areas surrounded by the barer areas. see how the eye darts for one busy section to the next.

And here how the eye is not attracted to the plainness of the single strands.

Diego has a very intense background and history with art. He attended an art restoration high school and eventually moved towards graphic work. This recently new player in the art world caught his break with a memorial piece for Amy Winehouse, which lead him to an interview on MTV France and the circulation  of his clip on all music channels.

The body of work that grabbed my attention was his graphic drawings coupled with pictures of food! They are less serious, and it took him a while to come to terms with art for fun’s sake versus his formal training in restoration. This work is fun and keeps Diego inspired.

His integration of food into his drawings shows an interesting perspective on drawing into space. He uses things us illustrators use everyday, food and doodling, and combines them in a very clever and comedic way. The work is very fresh and original.

http://www.diegocusano.com/gallery.html

Born in 1972 in rural Ontario, this versatile artist began to grow his creativity along with his allergy to hay. As a boy he dabbled between making elaborate hay forts in his family’s barn and drawing and using the computer graphics of the time.

Today he plays with computer graphics and installation instead of hay and produces beautiful abstracted architecture. He is an up and coming artist, just recently hitting 10,000 followers on instagram.

His drawings have an illustrative expressive quality mixed with an MC Escher approach.

His current series is called:

He turns these into reference for his series of 96″ x 42″ images, printed on archival paper and mounted on dibond. They express almost a post apocalyptic feel.

http://www.mathewborrett.com