Stella's Art Blog

In Art Portfolio this trimester, I tried to expand my artistic boundaries by working in both 2D and 3D. I resumed the giant painting I was working on and finished it, as well as creating a sculpture series of "flesh monsters", work-like creatures wrapped with yarn to look like muscle. I even ordered some resin human teeth online to give them the desired creepy effect. I'm very proud of the effort I put into my works this trimester and how I wasn't afraid to get out of my comfort zone. Another project of mine that I was proud of was a paper collage I did. It's a picture split into two canvases featuring angels of heaven and demons of hell. I enjoyed working with paper cutting very much and plan to work more with it in the future and maybe even combining it with 3D to create a diorama-like piece.

Right now in 3D art, I am working on a muppet recreation of myself. Because most muppets take on monstery or nonhuman appearances, I created a creature that shares some of my notable features. I sculpted the head shape, which was different then head bases I have created before. I wanted it to be shaped more egg-like with a prominent snout. I then created the hair using yarn and the eyes and features with felt. I plan to style the hair today, and get started on the arms and legs whenever I am done.

Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg was an American graphic artist, painter, and sculptor who was well known for his pieces combining collage and paint. In a number of his paintings, he combines images depicting major political an social events of a certain time period or event (i.e. the JFK presidency) and edits them together and paints over them. I also researched his sculptures, which I found very interesting. In his sculpture work, known as his "combines" of the 1950s, he combines a variety of organic and manmade materials to create assemblages of items. This creates a unique new item, arranged in a compelling composition. They look like strange inventions to me, and inspire me to work with more natural materials.

Claes Oldenburg is a sculptor best known for his sculptures of giant-sized versions of everyday objects. Immediately I recognized his work (particularly the big spoon with the cherry)- I feel like I've done a blog on him before, perhaps? However, the last time I researched him, I was more focused on his giant sculptures instead of his work with fabric. I had no idea he even worked with fabric until the blog assignment mentioned it. Obviously, Claes plays a lot with shape and scale in his sculptures, but I was drawn to his use of texture and movement in his fabric works. He manipulates the fabric to lay a certain way, giving the sculpted object a prominent texture. This works especially well in his food sculptures, where he lays soft fabric to look like various breads/vegetables/etc. He is very loose with these fabric sculptures, and they almost look like they can be moved and manipulated like puppets.

Currently in Independent Studio, I am working on a piece titled "The Whole World and You". It features a nude woman riding a shooting star through the galaxy, attempting to shake a sentient planet off her back but is unable to. I created this piece to represent the way women are treated in a male-dominated society. We are catcalled, abused, raped, and stalked. Women fear for their lives just walking home after dark. And in some cases, there's no way to escape it- sometimes, resisting against a predatory man could be a death sentence. The empty galaxy represents the isolation and hopelessness a woman feels while being preyed on, helpless to escape the planet's clutches.

Right now in portfolio studio, I've started working on a sculpture of a small worm-like creature. I created him using yarn, wire, tin foil. mod podge, paint, and the real kicker- resin human teeth. My plans are to create a whole series of these little creatures, ranging in different sizes and shapes. Putting together a series of them would be very fun to display at the art show. My first creature, Clump, is very small, so I plan to create some on a larger scale. The largest would probably be reaching up to my ankles, while Clump fits in my hands. I've been using the internet to my advantage to look for inspiration. My creatures obviously won't be as grotesque as some of these, but they serve as great inspiration.