Final

Final Reflection

1.  My most successful project this year was the wooden skier.  This assignment was my first one where I really dove into woodworking, expanding my skill tremendously.  I was also able to experiment with the smoothness and line quality.  I used the belt sander, the Japanese hand saw, the table saw, a dremel, the big drill with a sanding attachment, and just normal sandpaper.  In addition, I had to draw out the design on the wood, bringing forth essential planning/envisioning skills.  I really wanted to get across a feeling of fluidity and through the physological moment of "free fall" or "float" as the skier soars through the air.  To express it, I made sure to smooth out my piece and make the edges and corners super mellow.

2.  The most challenging project was the pottery project and working on spinning clay on the wheel.  Although I never actually completed a successful piece on the wheel, It really stretched my skill as I tried to pull the pottery. The hardest successful project was the drum, because of it's size.  The final work looks very close to what I anticipated, however I did change the form of the drum by adding indents.  The indents made the drum have a more interesting appearance, as well as it was a good place to grasp the drum with your legs.  The size of the drum made the construction of it more difficult, because a solid base was needed to support it.  To solve this, Campo and I used a slap technique and added coils on top.

3.  The first strength I have discovered this year is my ability to work with fluidity and smoothness.  Almost all of my projects have been smooth with an element of fluidity. For me, this quality gives sculptures a sort of balance.  Also, I find art more visually appealing if it is smooth and fluid.  The next strength is my ability to work with wood, which has greatly increased throughout the year.  I like it because it can be cut, sanded, glued, drilled, nailed, or chiseled.  This versatility makes it perfect for most of my projects and has always been my go-to material. At the beginning of the year, I focused mostly on cutting and constructing with wood.  Towards the middle and end, I focused more on detracting, by taking away instead of adding.  The final strength is the ability to change my intentions throughout the project.  Besides my skier and car, all of my projects have turned out slightly different then my original intentions.  This is because as I am working, I will change my sculpture based on what I see and if there are any hurdles.  This allowed my to make some of my works more interesting, such as my drum, by changing its shape partway through.


Overall, I had an awesome year in sculpture and I look forward to working more with wood and other materials to create functional and/or aesthetically pleasing pieces of art.

Absurd Tool

Absurd Tool

1.  My intentions for this project were to create an abstract form of a formula one car. I was inspired by a picture of the "melting car" that Mercedes produced for the Geneva car show.  This work would represent my artistic voice because I generally like to make simplified, almost abstract forms with really smooth edges and lines.  Also, I really like cars, so incorporating them into art is always a plus.  To carry out these intentions, I made sure to simplify the design of the Ferrari formula one car, then carve it out of wood, making sure to smooth out every edge.

2.  I was pleased to hear in the review session that people saw the simplicity and smoothness of the car.  I got a couple of comments that said that my car looked like it was melting or rising from a block of wood, which was my original intention.  The words that stick out to me are "smooth," "sanded," "texture," "detail," and "block," because they represent my original intentions to create a surrealist car.  Overall, these comments reassured me that I successfully completed my project.

3.  This project definitely showcased my skills from this year.  I was able to incorporate the sanding/carving skills from the physcological moment project, as well as basic wood cutting skills from various other projects.  I really enjoy working with wood, so being able to use it again was a bonus.  This project also further enhanced my skills with a dremel and sandpaper.

4.  This project allowed me to stretch and explore within woodworking.  I hadn't really used a dremel before, so needed to use it really made me comfortable with the different ends and attachments.  Also I was able to explore with the smoothness of wood and how I could sand down edges to create new line qualities.