IP Weekly Progress -- #8

What I Did:

Sunday: (5 hours) Made a mini model draft of the giant flora form and planned out individual parts of the form.

Monday: (5 hours) Made a quick large scale draft and started making the large flora piece. Made some creative additions to the piece like papercut and quilling forms for experimental purposes.

Tuesday: (3 hours) Played with small drafts of scoring and cutting techniques to get more “rounded” forms when piecing multiples together. Tried to make some bigger forms, but not quite successful.

Wednesday: (3 hours) Purchased more paper and played with papercut. Looked for ways to install pieces by comparing artists or looking online to hang and display my pieces.

Thursday: (4 hours) Scored large sheets of paper and continued making more drafts on a larger scale. Also thought about paper texture (Scoring) and played with small LED lights to determine lighting capabilities.

Process:

I’m beginning to fill a frame of what to accomplish during my studio hours per week. I minimize my sketching of each subject and play with paper drafts until I achieve a technique I find the most successful. I build off the “technique” and apply other paper forms until I am happy. I merge these shapes together to create a piece of natural, attractive shapes inspired by nature.

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

I made a piece and glued it to a sheet of paper on the wall. Once I finished the contrast between both exercises marked the evolution of my process:

The Branch paper form I made was much too literal –the branch is meant to be a whimsical and conceptual representation of a tree branch with abstract leaf forms. People still see it as a tree branch and question what the purpose of making a perfectly shaped stick with abstract leaves is. Why specifically a tree branch?

My jelly flora form became an abstraction of several things found in real life: a Siphonophore, the bud of a flower, and leaves. There is a major difference between the two subjects and I feel this particular piece is an experiment on the right path. My idea of making now is to formulate a shape and strategically place it until I sense inspiration to fold another shape and merge the two together.

This week I tried to combine 2D and 3D (Papercut and Quilling with Large scale folding) – but I found that I was a little too hasty and sensed that I there is still an obvious divide. There is no “inbetween” and I need to figure out a solution to this issue.

These are some pieces I started drafting to try making multiples of. I'm thinking of making a large flower that works as a colony like with Siphonphorae live -- multiple "flowers" of the same species which work together to pollenate, attract prey, and expand in its growth. I'm exploring the Predator-Prey relationship: ensnaring the audience to engage in my pieces and observe them from a closer range ...

What I think I should do next:

Keep doing what I’m doing: making drafts of shapes and practicing folding, scoring and cutting for my forms and keep going bigger. Make a multiples piece that hangs and encourages viewers to engage the plant to the inside of it. Like a predator prey relationship. I'm working on formulating a full 360 degree view of my sculpture and allowing the audience to view the inside of my piece. I also would really like to incorporate the idea of texture (Scales, hair, fur etc). How can I do that?