This sculpture was made in response to a school project entitled “tension”. The sculptured actual name is “Stretched Thin”.
Over the past month or two, I have been grasping difficultly with time and emotional management. This sculpture is a kind of representation of that. The dimensions of this box are a direct representation of my body mass, and the objects inside the box are a kind of visualization of the things I have been feeling. Conflict, tension, destruction, and motion are all represented in the enclosed space. Although adding to my stress at many points was a very new and therapeutic way to really work through all these emotions. I hope to continue adding shapes to this structure as a way to keep myself both busy and challenged during the summer months.
Process wise this sculpture took quite awhile. Each joint on the wooded shape features a double dowel joint that was formed using hand drills, drill presses, wood glue and a chop saw at certain points. The wood itself is pine that was sanded and stained by me along the process. Inside the structure features a variety of materials including Burlap cloth, cotton string, eye screw and S-bends that were bent and turned into hooks.
A sculpture project done in school focused on “Duplicates”. The 5 Lightbulb objects you see here are made from plaster, and were molded from a real light bulb and painted by hand. The packaging you see in these photos was also designed and put together by me.
The concept behind this project was to create the casts of these light bulbs and to find a way to package them in one system, that could be sold on the shelf of a store without people realizing. The packaging itself reflects the matter sold within it as it boasts that the product inside is both “Energy efficient” and “Eco Friendly”.
If the consumer only knew….
Painting process shots. The label is made by using a projector to enlarge the actual label, tracing the shapes projected on the paper, and using acrylic paint and a gold paint pen to add the colors. The label is made out of a thick poster board that I had laying around the house.
Process shots for how the can was made.
The lid is cut with templates made from circles cut with a ban-saw out of wood. Cutting down the template’s smaller and smaller I was able to polish lines into to steel to give it a 3 dimensional feel to the lid without bending it.
The tube is made by binding galvanized steel strips to the inside and outside of the tube with epoxy. The inside of the top was given one extra layer of the metal so the lid could fit in snugly and would hold where I needed it without falling through the structure. to the bottom.
With the Structure created, now all is left in the label.
The Sculpture is the prepped for painting. I watered down acrylic paints and using a brush squeegeed the pigment on the edge of the shape to make it drip down the surface. Using paper as a kind of stencil I blocked off each of the different characters in turn as I dripped a different color on each one. The shape’s inside was then re-spray painted for the cleanup touches and was completed.
After welding together, I clean up the edges with the dremel tool and axel grinder one last time, sand blast the entire sculpture, and spray paint it black. The shape is now ready for painting.
I slowly began to weld the pencil rod to the form of the body, and afterwards weld the entire structure together.
The beginnings of my metal sculpture. I began the project by stenciling the desired form on to the mild steel with a sharpie. The shapes were then cut out the a plasma cutter, and the edges were grinded down with a hand held axle grinder and a touched up with a dremel.
I then proceeded to cut the 71 connecting bars from pencil rod with a bolt cutter, and ground them down with the larger axel grinder.
I completly forgot to take more process photos of this project and Im really regretting that now. These are plaster castings of a spray paint can I made. They were painted with acrylic paints and spay paint. There will be a final installation shot soon.
