knicy

Escape from FPAC-Shoes on the Loose

By knicy | April 30, 2009

So here are the images from the my final project. Many loved and probable wanted to take my shoes (I had to sit and guard them), but I put them up anyway. Some may find the implied narratives amusing, while others may find them heart breaking. At any rate…..here they are.

The escape/break out

the long view...

caught by The Boots

mother and children....

killed by The Boots

it is too late.....come on!

The Boots are pinned

all clear....run!

too thirsty to run....

nearly home free!

I wish that I could have posted a video of the full effect. As you walked down the hall you follwed the escape. I also wish I could have recorded reactions from people. At one point a group of people said the shoes were creeping them out…..too funny!!!!!!!!

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Final Project-research

By knicy | April 30, 2009

So the end of the semester has come along with the self guided final project. My project was to explore the use of space with a repeatative object all the while attempting to interact with the viewer. Being the end of the semester….money was an issue….I had to use something I already had or could find. Ahh Yes……SHOES! I have loads of shoes and they are all awesome. I researched some artists that used shoes and found some really interesting pieces. These are some I found:

Meret Oppenheim

Gazen Bowen

Willie Cole

Now that I had an idea what others did with shoes, I had to come up with my own idea. While at home I found a small “bird cage” and some fancy keys. I put a pair of shoes in the cage with the keys hanging next to it. That was not a use of space or viewer interaction. I also wrapped the shoes with strips of fabric….sorta like ancient foot binding. I still wasn’t thinking on the right level. Eventual I came to the cage again and shoes escaping from it. This was it and I ran withn it. So here are my first attempts at this in the art building.

escaping shoes

climbing/flying away

After playing with the shoes in the installation space for a couple hours and getting some much needed feedback, I felt I had a good grasp on what I would do in the end. Pictures from the actual finished piece to come.

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Audio Art….fun fun fun…..

By knicy | April 23, 2009

So this one turned out to be the most fun of all the projects so far. The first day we listened to see what we were missing out on by not paying attention. We heard traffic, birds chirpping, the hum of the building, people walking through the halls, pants and shoes scuffing. My origianl idea was to incorporate wine glasses into my project….that seemed too easy. I decided on using wine bottles…..I would fill them with water and then hit them. I wanted to “tune” a set of bottles to a well known song. I next had to determine how I was going to hang each bottle. I wanted this part to be more sculptural since my wine bottles were not. I was sent to the scrap pile at school and started playing with plastic tubes and random metal contraptions. Here is my original sculptural piece.

I thought that was going to work and so was not worried about it any longer. Over the weekend I gathered 18 empty wine bottles to set up my songs. I enlisted the help of my sister because she has a piano. We spent around 3 hours filling, hitting and dumping wine bottles. We created 3 songs: Twinkle Little Star, Ode To Joy, and London Bridges. We did our best to tune each song to a set of bottles.

Monday afternoon I headed back to my sculpture to hang bottles and make sure all was well. I realized that the bottles were too heavy and needed to add support. I found 3 metal poles with cement at the base. I rigged these to my exsisting design. I attached all by bottles and tested each set. Success!!!!! Ha…yeah right. THe whole thing came crashing down…..arrggghhhh!!!!!!! In serious frustration I removed my bottles and had to figure out how to stabilize it better. Another instructor suggested smaller cross arches attached to my weight support poles. Woohoo…..it was not coming down now.

Now with a sturdy sculpture I could reattach my wine bottles. Once I started putting them on a few students came over to play with it whille I was finishing up. I was super stoked. Here is the finished product.

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Process-beads

By knicy | April 8, 2009

I found this project to be a big challenge. I understood the concept perfectly, however we were shown so many examples it was hard not to copy. I had decided to use beads because I had so many in my boxes of crafty stuff at home. Originally I had silvery seed beads and was stringing them onto clear plastic string. I had no idea where I was going with it. I went online and looked up synonyms for the word bead and came up with this list.

droplet, blob, bean, bubble, dab,dot, driblet, drop, globule, grain, particle, pea, pill, shot, speck, spherule, stone, pearl, astragal, driplet, talus.

With the list in hand I thought it might provoke something….no luck, still lost. Finally Clare suggested beading something that wouldn’t normally be beaded. With this advice and the synonyms I came up with an idea. I was going to create a long long long string of silver beads on wire. With that I was going to make a wine glass of sorts. I would do the same thing with red beads and have it look like wine was spilling out and onto the floor…..beading up….

Once I got the beads on the long wire, I struggled to get them to hold the glass shape, it would hold the curve but not the form. Time for a new idea. I sat playing with the beaded wire for a couple hours and even let a friend play with it hoping she might do something that might stimulate my imagination….nope. Eventually I thought about making a bunch of circles in silver and connect them with small red circles….that idea seemed very 2-d to me and I wanted something 3-d.

Something made me think of sea anenome and I began cutting the wire into smaller pieces…they still had the curl from the wine glass attempts and playing with it. I liked how it looked hanging there, the way it sparkled in the light. I decided it needed more color and I found some green and purple beads. I thought it needed a variety in lengths. So in the end, this is what happened. I really like it and will probable hang it somewhere in my house when it comes home.

hanging in the classroom

another angle

looking up from under

from a distance

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5 inches

By knicy | March 24, 2009

This is my fiber creation. I called it 5 inches because it looks like 5 little (well actually big) inch worms climbing up a tree. Each “inch worm” is made from rolled fabric with glue in between all the layers. Some of them are wrapped with furry yarn to add a little more character. I installed them on a tree that appeared to have some of the same qualities as the fibers. The furry worms matched the organic stuff growing on the tree…while the fabric had a pattern that almost looked like a wood or bamboo.

Initially I was going to create sticks/twigs with the rolled fabric and then use the fluffy yarn to add blooms to it. Once the first piece was finished, I decided it probable would not be sturdy enough to stand. It was at this point I realized my creation looked like worms and I went with that. The words I think of are curved rolls. I had fun doing this project and everytime i pass the tree where my project is installed it makes me giggle.

furry inch

smooth inch crawling up organic growth on treefurry and smooth inches

bristol 3-d creations

This project required drawing objects that had line, plane, and volume. The first set of drawings had to have one element more dominant than the others and in the second set it did not matter. After drawings were complete we had to attempt to build some of the drawings. I picked a couple of drawings and built them. These are the ones I built.

This is the bristol creation I turned in as my final product. I really like this one, it was my favorite. I loved the super curved plane…that is why I made the decision to turn it in.

Monkey Purse Morph….

Maquettes

We were asked to try to create a 3-d sculpture that was reminiscant of Richard Serra. He works with sheet metal in large format. Amazing work if you ask me.

When I went online to find other artists in this field, I wanted to find something other than the designers of virtual worlds like Second Life or The Sims. The individual I found creates animated wallpaper, reliefs, and rosette windows. He puts a hugs amount of time into this wallpaper and it is so captivating and relaxing at the same time. His name is Christopher Pearson. The wall paper I saw was for a high end restaurant in London called Sketch. It was awesome to see a William Morris inspired design morph into an underwater world. Another individual I found created 3-d images with chalk. They were not computer generated but I thought it was really amazing anyway. Julian Beever creates illusions that make you feel like you could walk right into his image….but obviously you can not.

So for phase 3 we used bristol paper to create shapes or containers I suppose. This at first thought seemed easy but turned out to be much more complicated that I needed. When you think about a shape, you don’t think about what it takes to create it. Some students went online and downloaded patterns. Personally, I thought that was a cop out for using their heads and imagination. They did find more complicated things to build but all they had to do was cut and glue. I created a box….which was mostly easy to figure out. My second creation was an oblesck….such as Cleopatra’s Needle. This one took much more time but turned out pretty decent….after some refiguring half way through. Here are my bristol creations

Phase 4 required going outside and exploring the surrondings for things that could be art. We watched a video about Gabreial Orazco and his methods. I found him interesting and strange all in one. He questioned everything around him. Going to to grocery store and creating a sort of chaos and photographing it. We also talked breifly about Andy Goldsworthy with whom I have known about for years. I think his work is spectatular. He only uses things in nature to create beautiful sculptures and such.

When sent out to create my own Orazco or Goldsworthy I struggled….I could not seem to find things to use. Everything seemed too cheesy or just plain boring. Here are my attempts.

As mentioned above I really liked Andy Goldsworthy…his mind works in amazing ways. I also found a guy that creates “gardens” on the side of buildings. His name is Patrick Blanc. The designs he creates change the feeling of the entire building. YOu no longer see a concrete jungle. You see WOW!!!! He works with interiors and exteriors. His creations are meant to last years and are also meant to make people stop and think. I am actually going to use his creations in one of my projects for a restaurant I am working on for my Contract II class. Very excited about it.

I enjoyed all of the phases of the project and found them to be educational for me. I am not the biggest fan of the bristol paper forms but that was just because it stretched my mind…..

2D to 3D

When I went online and checked out Peter Callesen’s paper cut art, I was amazed. I thought that it looked like something I could figure out….boy was I mistaken. This turned out to be a challenge for me. It took me some time to wrap my brain around it. My first few atttempts looked sloppy, and then it began to come together. Here is a picture of my first attempt.

My first successful attempt was a complete accident. I got frustrated and poof…there was a really cool 2D and 3D piece.