Work Space

I figured that I'd show my desk in my apartment where I do nearly all of my work.  Since I have a studio apartment, my desk serves a multitude of roles.  I use it as a place to do homework, to work on art, and as a dinner table when I'm actually eating at home.  

Behind my laptop is the personal work that I've been working on for the last week.  It's slow going since I'm loaded up with schoolwork but it's usually pretty cathartic to come home late at night and work on it.  At this point, I'm working on the early stages of making stencils from the laserjet print.  To the right of that, is a newer typewriter that my friend is letting me use until I can find the perfect one.  I'm looking around for a manual one; this one is electric but is missing a power cord so for now, it's using 4 "D" batteries.  


Happy Saturday :)

Completed Door

Here is the final version of the door that I was working on.  Overall, I am very happy with the piece.  My plan through all of it was to learn how to use plaster bandages and I definitely succeeded in that.  Beyond that, it was just a ton of fun to make something with my hands again.  Because of the program that I am in, most of my time is spent either on the computer or pouring over books and making something that required the use of my entire body felt wonderful.  The photo was projected and was accompanied by the song A Plague of Frost (In the Guise of Diamonds) by a band called Aarktica.  

I'm still figuring out how to embed audio files on here but if you Google the title, there's a few different sites that will let you listen to it.  It's a very ethereal track that everyone in critique thought went well with what I was trying to convey.  It also has a slightly personal connection because the main member of the project, John DeRosa suffers from extreme hearing loss in his right ear and I suffer from hearing loss in my left.  I've always wondered if I hear what he does or something at least closer than what most people with "normal" hearing are experience when listening to his music.

There are some final touches I want to do on the sculpture and eventually, I'm going to photograph it with film.  Because of time constraints, I had to use my Nikon D200 but I still think it came out pretty well.

A Little More

Here are two more photos of what I've been playing around with.  The hearts are going to be used to make a stencil; I'm still not sure which I like more yet, I'll probably just make one for both and after some tests decide.  Let me just say, I love having access to a copy of Gray's Anatomy, a hi-res scanner, and an 11x17" laser-jet printer.


I am really excited to work on this even though I am swamped with school-work.  It's funny how I get inspired to start something completely new when I don't actually have any real free-time to work on it.  I may just save it to work on in class when I'm student-teaching with an AP art class.

Something New

I'm starting on a new project.  Part of it is all about accumulation.  I'm saving every scrap of paper, every receipt that I receive, and any old book pages that I want to use.  It also calls for a copy of Gray's Anatomy as well as some geometric functions.

This should be fun.

Painted

I just finished painting everything and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  All I used was black, Basics acrylic and a ton of matte medium to stretch how far it went.  When I get home later, I'll check and see if any spots need touching up.  If not, it's ready to be photographed for class.

Ready for Paint

Here are some photographs of the door with everything finally attached.  I had just enough plaster bandages to attach everything (with the aid of a ton of staples.)

Top half of the piece with tendrils added.

Close up of the "head."  This part was probably the most fun to make albeit the part that gave me the most trouble with the armature and then the plaster.

Bottom half of the piece.  I was testing out some Basic brand acrylic paint to see how it worked.  I was thinking of using house paint to cover the plaster but this stuff seems to work well.  I just need to thin it down a bit to get what I need out of it.

Shot of the whole thing.  So pumped to stand it up tonight!

Coming Together

Quick shot of the leg pieces after they were attached.  I've been using a combination of staples and plaster bandages to attach everything to the door and it's actually extremely sturdy.

Hands and legs are all attached as is the creepy part where the head would be.  I've started to attach tendrils around the limbs but it's slow going.  Most of them don't have anything that I can use to help me staple into the wood so I've got to make sure the plaster holds.


Back to work.  Should be done with this stage in the next few hours!