Like animating my film....
So here I am, in class, sculpting my final design for Kyros, the old master. I am. THRILLED! Here- have some photos of my progress.
WEEK ONE:
I finished the armature only in the first week. I was sad, but I got to class a little late because of my meeting before and I had to go and buy a lot of the supplies. I wish I had unlimited funds- I would buy everything I could every possibly need! Including Dream Wire.
WEEK TWO:
The plan going in to class today was to heat up the Chavant, while that was going on- to wrap the body with aluminum foil to lighten him up a bit, then THROW the Chavant on it as quickly as possible. I wanted his rough shape roughed out before the end of class. Needless to say- I did it!
Now I want to get some references of some good strong anatomy of old people (think senior citizen Olympians!) and really make a lot of progress next week. I find myself looking forward to this class more than almost any other.
I am reminded though of the last time I made a sculpture- in high school. The bust I called 'Misery'. For every reason that just popped in your head- it was accurate! The assignment was to make a bust portrait kind of thing... And what did over-achiever-art-student-Amanda do?!?!?! Why- a slightly larger than life-size bust- complete with two ARMS!!!! When wet, it weighed about 40-50 pounds. It lightened up to maybe 35-40 when complete. It also destroyed my mother's brand new teak dining room table when I took it home to work on it. Lugging that bitc- uhhh, art piece home should be adopted as a fun new version of torture!
Now imagine me during the first firing... I had spent WEEKS on this bitc- uhh, girl. (One day, I had even asked if I could stay inside during a fire drill because 1) I was in the middle of a great streak and 2) I was covered to my WRISTS in clay! I was forced outside in the Texas heat, where I first looked like a psycho doctor who had performed some horrific surgery on some poor victim, then the clay hardened on me and I was an encased sculpture.) I was TERRIFIED that she would bust open. If I'd encased any air bubbles in her, she would explode. She was also so large, that my teacher couldn't fit ANYTHING ELSE in the kiln! (And it was a BIG KILN!) Thankfully (or was it?!), she came out mostly unscathed.
When I was asked how I wanted to glaze her- I wanted to stay as far away from traditional glazes as possible. I knew what I would do with my lousy color sense. I would RUIN IT! So my teacher, the PHENOMENAL Miss Moore, suggested that we smoke her with a firing process called 'raku'. Of course, I was down. However- you must realize- most sculptures made by my class could have been smoked in a coffee can! But NOT Misery! We needed a oil barrel to fit her in! So after I spray painted her a metallic gold, we threw (read: had to carefully lower a 35 pound sculpture down from the lip of a tall oil barrel!) her in the bottom, filled it with newspapers and SET! IT! ON! FIRE!!!!! MWA-HAHAHAH!!!!!!
Sadly... she survived. I will never forget "uncovering" her face in the oil barrel. I had to brush away ashes from her eyes. She looked like a face frozen in agony from the Pompeii volcano! It was AWESOME!
Actually, she came out so well, my teacher made me take her to a local art competition. (Please keep in mind, most students going to this competition had one art piece... on a piece of paper... or cardboard. I HAD THAT FREAKING 35-POUND BEHEMOTH!!!) I got a first place, then got selected to represent our region at the STATE level. SO I had to drag Misery on a BUS to Arlington, TX and lug her to the freaking building! GOD, how I hated her by then! I seriously just wanted to drop her on the walk in to the building... I ended up getting a perfect score at State.
I still hate that freaking sculpture....
No comments:
Post a Comment