Week of the show/week after:

Monday was spent working on the installation yarn piece, which we were able to set up the base for the installation. We were unsure, as a group however as to what the installation should look like. By the end of Monday Rachael and Hollis had started the design, which gave us an easy day on Wednesday in order to work together as a team and put up our yarn installation. I believe that our time management was really successful, as a team we knew what we wanted to do and we worked hard during our class time.

Week 2 of project:

This week I began to use a projector in order to outline all the objects in my room. On Monday I was able to complete 50% of the drawing and then Wednesday I completed the outlines and began the detailing.

Spring Break: This was spring break week so I spent Monday and Tuesday working on finishing with the lithograph crayon in order to add more mid-tones to the drawing.

Week 1 of project:

I began my project with preliminary drawings and sketches, before renting a projector from Storrs and then projecting a grey scale image of my bedroom onto the drafting mylar which I will talk about in my second week. So my first step was to do some sketches to draw out conceptually what the piece would look like.

For this project I was more focused on constructing a 3D piece that could allow for interaction. I also wanted use the different textures within the cardboard to create variety in the sculpture. Accenting the folds, ripping off the layers to show the ridging in the center.

Our project included using materials that activated the space in which it was installed. By using a mixture of materials the result is a variety of active and static lines. The space was chosen because the gate when gusts of wind comes along send the pink lines aflutter. They become active and dancing, reminiscent of tribal dancing. While the orange and black tape ground the strong lines when the wind blows through.  The rise and fall of the pink string creates a sense of breath. There’s a soft sound when the wind runs through the gates that is pleasing and calming despite the loud colors.

Claire Trotignon creates works that collages fragments of engravings and old postcards. The result is meticulous and intriguing landscapes that are neither drawings or sculptures. Her drawings articulate neither architecture or a narration, rather they create a new time and space. The detailing of the work is impressive as they imagery is hand cut from engravings and carefully arranged into a new landscape. She has crafted a new realm in each image. The use of a white background keeps the images ungrounded as they appear to float in space. As though these are in progress pieces, the landscape is not quite together yet and its intriguing. The whiteness draws you in to look more closely at the pieces within. Although her drawings may not have a narrative quality to them you can sense the story. The placement of the pieces itself creates a kind of story telling.

Claire Trotignon is an artist who lives and works in Paris, France.

Joao Ruas is a 35 year old artist from Sao Paulo, Brazil with a Bachelors in Graphic Design. Ruas’s work focuses on creating mythology inspired landscapes and placing figures into these worlds. The work has an ethereal quality as the figures are created in a realistic style, but are placed in ways that are mythical. Below is ‘Hercules’ which has the figures located within the lion’s head. The lion’s head is almost enveloping the figures like a cloak, but the main figure seems slack with exhaustion. ‘Hercules’ like much of Ruas’s work juxtaposes elements of realism with a dark world of fantasy.

His work combines a dystopian landscape with ethereal figures that transcend the space and composition. The figures intermingle with objects within the space. Although his work is not limited to graphite, his work has always struck me as drawings. Very meticulous and well articulated drawings of the figure. His compositions are intriguing and balanced. The mystery of them draw you in to further explore the fine details he has included for the viewer to decode the story.

Amelie Chabannes was born in France and studied Architecture and Fine Arts at a French Art school called ENSAD.”I first aspired to associate the exploration of the self with archeological procedures.  My recent installations have stood as excavation sites and their sculptural objects were submitted to raw and meticulous recovery in which debris and artifacts are observed as remains of our individuality.” Chabannes soon began to explore identity through excavation which then transitioned to exploring the close relationships of others. The images in her series that visually represent relationships seek to blur those borders between two individuals.

Chabannes technique involves a drawing which is then layered with 20 to 30 of the same drawing on tracing paper. The drawings are flipped and transferred on a wooden surface where then the artist carves into the surface to destroy the areas where the two figures connect to continue to blur the borders between them. The work explores the limitless sense of identity and the destruction of such is an act of defiance. The original image is a single contour drawing that is then layered and overlapped. The original contour outlines shadows and highlights, in a movement similar to continuous line.

Chan Hwee Chong creates spiral illustrations of famous paintings. Using a single line and the push-pull technique to create different layers of shadows and depth. What began as a commission by Faber and Castell to show the precision of their artist pens gave Chan Hwee Chong fame. Hwee Chong is a man from Singapore who is currently living Germany as an art director at a German design studio ‘Kolle Robbe’ in Hamburg. He focuses on exploring typography and art installations in a public space that provoke our senses. Recently Hwee Chong created in collaboration with other artists the Lightstix Graffiti.

The Lightstix Graffiti is an inventive way to create a drawing in a public space that glows and catches the attention of passerby’s, like a beacon. The graffiti fixes glow-sticks onto a surface and then arranges them in such a way to create an image, or a drawing. Resulting in a glowing, beacon in an otherwise dark landscape.

David Oliveira is an artist that uses wire in order to create expressive drawings or sketches of figures and animals. The result is a 3-Dimensional rendering of the subject that has the appearance of a fast, light sketch and the solidity of a 3D object. It reminds me of a trompe l’oeil situation where the viewer from afar would expect the piece to be a drawing but as they examined closer the shadows of the wires are seen and the dimensionality of the piece is known.

David Oliveira is a 35 year old artist in Lisbon. He graduated in Sculpture by the University of Fine Arts in Lisbon, with a major in ceramics. Moving on to gaining a Master in Drawing and Artistic Compared Anatomy. Using a combination of wire and electrical tape to create a variety of line quality. In some a wider black paper, or resin is applied to block out the delicate wires.

Artists website: http://davidoliveiraescul.wix.com/davidoliveira