UWM Hybrid Heroes
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Title: "Supernatural Jellyfish" Medium: Cardboard Completion: February 17th, 2022 |
Exhibition Text:
The crafted "Supernatural Jellyfish" represents both of my loves space and the ocean, and merges them together into a sneaky being, while also combining the inspiration of Chris Gilmore's smooth structures. It combines the structure of a jellyfish while combining the sharp angles on such as a UFO, within that adding on more elements to the ocean like coral. The bottom half follows the media depiction of alien-like fingers that are sharp to the point of fear, while also showing power.
: Artist Inspiration :
First is the obvious inspiration of the jellyfish and the media idea of alien life. My absolute love for space is what brought the piece together, to combine that with the elegant form of a jellyfish was my first idea. Aliens are usually depicted as mysterious creatures with deformed bodies and crazed perspectives, this is what I wanted to accomplish within the jellyfish's structured build. The jellyfish was the first thought that struck my head when introduced to the project, I thought it would be the most fun to craft myself into by cardboard, the direct question was, how? Another part included the media's often portrayal of alien hands and how they look morphed, and perhaps give them power as they look almost advanced than ours.
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The actual artist I was inspired by was, Chris Gilmour, someone who works with the same medium I would use for the project. Chris crafts daily looking objects using cardboard and he uses the lighting to bring these pieces to life. He recycles material to make new simple materials out of objects, and the way he makes the cardboard look exactly like the object is what caught my eye. I am going to use that smoothness within the creation of my project, as I want the form to be very smooth and simple.
His sculptures look smooth and completely capture the object that is supposed to be represented. The lighting he uses within taking photos of the object exemplifies their form and shape and give full illusion of the transformed object. His creations really looked like actual objects and looks like he takes full time and effort into his pieces, which is what inspired me. |
Planning Phase
My first page of planning consisted of what I originally wanted the base to be for the project. A smooth, rounded structure around my face that would open up a hatchet that reveals me face, as in revealing a mystery - or whats inside. The design also included coral around the head as to add more detail to the piece. It also added claws that would place around my fingers. These parts connect to my inspiration and form of jellyfish and aliens, while giving the smooth figures that I wanted through Gilmour's piece.
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After a couple days of figuring out the process, I had chosen to revise my piece. This was to change the structure of the head and make it more technological and fitted within my head. I would craft a bunch of triangles together and within that would craft something that revolves around my head geometrically. This still connects to smoothly made shapes and parts within my inspiration. Not only that, but it took the more technologically advanced perspective others put onto aliens and added a more "alien-like" touch to what seemed a jellyfish centered piece. The bottom left focuses on something that would go around my head so I could walk within the project without it spinning around me head all crazy. It would surround my head and allow me to center my head into the piece. |
This page talks about connecting my inspirations:
2. Chris Gilmour: I wanted to capture the smoothness he has within his pieces as shown on the car to the right. I really enjoyed the sense of form he has within his pieces and how the structure plays out the illusion of an object using a different object. |
Process:
Through my first part of creating the base of the head, I had created about 18 similarly shaped triangles that would connect together to enforce the technological theme from my inspiration. The triangles also helped out with giving myself an idea of form and length of how big the piece would be compared to my own head. Using an exact-o-knife and ruler, I had measured out each triangle and would eventually hot glue them together into creating the base for the project. This process was tedious but it worked well into incorrperating the jellyfish base with smooth shapes. |
Working on the fingers was the most annoying part of the project shockingly. Connecting the two different parts to create alien-like hands was extremely difficult with my own impatience and struggle with failure. As the pieces were falling apart, I had to take time to connect them all together while dealing with the hot glue's stringly attacks on the project. Though, the fingers had turned out perfectly as I expected them to, except less detailed than the planning. They connected well to my hands and captured the strangely formed ways people portray alien hands like I was inspired by. |
Last was the connection of the head and the tentacles. The head piece was actually harder than I thought to create as I had combined a bunch of pieces of cardboard to place my head into a part and keep it there. As I put the project on, I was able to over without disaster so it had worked. The tentacles connected with the jellyfish inspiration of the project making squigly and wacky shaped tentacles that would go around the base and to my lower body. The project had turned out nicely and I was able to move within it. |
Experimentation:
There were various thing I had to experiment on during the project. As the craft of the shape of the head was a big process, there was also the little experiments from the concept art. Many of these didn't make the cut because either I don't think they would fit with the project, or there wasn't enough cardboard or time for all of it. These experiments within the shape of the piece was a long option that required me to experiment with certain types of triangles I had cut out using the exact-o-knife. As these pieces didn't make the full cut, they were still nice ideas to be added if the project was continued.
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:Critique + In-process Critique
In class we had an in-person critique with one of the UWM directors of this project. When I went to her, we discussed the creation of a stable piece that goes on my head. The critique was a great way at seeing what I could fix.
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Similarities:
Differences:
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. . . Reflection . . .
This piece was unlike anything I had ever done before. Of course there has been previous motions of when we would have to craft such objects using paper or some other material, but nothing like this. I honestly feel pretty successful about this project, for how far I got, I really got to experience crafting such an object. The object really gives off what I wanted it to and it can be pretty obvious to look and see what it is, which is a good thing. The creation of this project however, was not the easiest thing to do. My arms usually got tired of bending the cardboard, and to make matters even worse, half of the materials were complicated to use within my environment. As I was able to get things done, many things ha to get cut in the process of how hard it would actually be to take so much time into something so small to craft. The amount of nerves I had for the creation of the process is what held me back for so long. I have to be more into my ideas and interested into these new things to really have hope in doing them correctly. The project really took a lot out of me, and it was very fun, but not something I would really do again.
My own reflection towards myself is to gain more confidence into these things so that when doing them again, I can feel more comfy into doing them. Other than my very obvious problem with self-management, I really went with the last couple of minutes to fully finish this project, which is a major problem I need to solve for future endeavors. Still, I am not going to be too hard on myself as I did something new for the first time in a while. Creating the object wasn't as hard as I expected it, and the final piece is actually fun to have and act out. Still there is room for improvement, the cracks within the project are very distracting and don't really work towards my inspiration. Within that, cutting the triangles had not went as well as expected, and I need to plan out more for future crafts. Another problem is my temper, I can't really have something just "work" in this project like I usually want things to, I need to work on my patience. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the project and I am very happy with how it turned out in the end.
My own reflection towards myself is to gain more confidence into these things so that when doing them again, I can feel more comfy into doing them. Other than my very obvious problem with self-management, I really went with the last couple of minutes to fully finish this project, which is a major problem I need to solve for future endeavors. Still, I am not going to be too hard on myself as I did something new for the first time in a while. Creating the object wasn't as hard as I expected it, and the final piece is actually fun to have and act out. Still there is room for improvement, the cracks within the project are very distracting and don't really work towards my inspiration. Within that, cutting the triangles had not went as well as expected, and I need to plan out more for future crafts. Another problem is my temper, I can't really have something just "work" in this project like I usually want things to, I need to work on my patience. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the project and I am very happy with how it turned out in the end.
: Connecting to the ACT :
- Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
The inspiration heavily impacts the artwork as the craft wouldn't really be what it is without the various inspirations I had that adapted these features of certain creatures and merging them together.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Chris takes his work within cardboard very seriously and crafts intricate pieces of work into daily objects. The way he smoothly creates objects out of reused material is very inspiring and his form works very well within showing the viewer a illusion of a real object, but made of a different resource.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
It really shows how people can become more these interesting inventions made through certain resources. The way it can get their message out there, and how they put so much work into it is very inspiring to others.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea was to combine my two interests, space and the ocean, with creating something that was supposed to be an alter ego version of me. I wanted something creepy and snazzy, but has a lot of personality while also having elegance. That was where the jellyfish came to mind.
5. What kind of inferences ( conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning ) did you make while reading your research?
The way people craft certain objects to create a different version of themselves is a very interesting way of telling a message. I think it's a good way of getting people to notice your craft and get inspiration off of it.
Citations in MLA Format
d'artistes, Carré. “Chris Gilmour, British Sculptor Who Is a Hit.” Www.carredartistes.com, 5 Mar. 2021, https://www.carredartistes.com/en-us/blog/chris-gilmour-s-cardboard.