OK, I have all of the pieces completed for my sculpture / memorial. I must say I did not expect it to take 9.5-10 hours of taping! I am soooooooo happy to be done with the actual tape & torture part!

     I look forward to seeing how it all turns out! 

Had to cover bottom half so my cats would not destroy or play with the "tape guy".

Proposal approved: just one sculpture ...

     The next two classes for TART 407 are workshop days and since I have already started my tape sculpture on my friend's husband ... the open shop house don't work for my project. 

     I greatly underestimated how long it would take to make a tape figure. I don't know if it is my technique or the fact that I have never made anything like this before but it took me 3.5 hours just to do the lower half shown here.

     I ran into a few problems so far & I am learning as I go. The main thing being that smaller portions of the body at one time is better! My poor friend was in a lot of pain when his leg had been stuck crossed over his knee for 2.5 hours. :o( Which of course resulted in him practically tearing his way out of the taped (right) leg ... there were a few casualties. The growing area is pretty torn up & the right foot fell off. lol. Fun times.   

     Since I already started, I feel ok knowing that the next time my friend can meet up with me to be my tape model again won't be until Thursday & Friday. There is still a lot to do but I look forward to seeing how it turns out. 

Mundane Memorial --- Ideas

OK, so now I am at the point where I have to 'memorialize' a 'mundane task' that we all do daily that gets overlooked (That's if I understand the assignment correctly). Again, having very little artistic experience I was a bit overwhelmed at the idea of having to not only create something on my own from scratch but then to have to DISPALY it to the public ... fun, fun! I initially thought of my mundane task being 'tying a shoe' & all I thought I could possibly make was a paper Mache shoe ... not a very interactive piece but what can I really create right?!

My teacher brought out this figure that was essentially a paper Mache figure .... but made out of tape. Genius! I automatically thought that I wanted to add color & I thought of 3 figures. After talking with the teacher the idea of paint may not be a great idea since the clear packing tape will not really take the paint well. Also ... I have to think about the fact that these figures will be sitting around my house & will be transported in my car ... I don't want paint everywhere!

I am not someone who can draw that well & I am certainly not good at drawing people. I thought it would be more productive to take photos of my friends & I posed in different positions to get an idea of what I might want to create. I need to see the big picture in my head first (most of the time), THEN I can break an idea up into the little details.

I agree that 3 figures may be a BIT ambitious ... when the thought popped into my head I saw 3 figures. For the two female figures I imagine windows to their stomach, lungs or mind ... also I see either duel themes& / or lots of color. For the male figure I see less symbolism & more direct use of objects like stuffing the figure with laces or shoes ... 

The thought of two figures is sweet / endearing ... if they are interacting ...

The teacher told me to look up "George Segal" for ideas on human figures. The plaster (I think) figures below are his.

I found more than a few "tape" figures that seemed popular in Europe and Moscow. ;o) Some were pretty funny.

There were many things I observed when I was at the place I picked for the "mundane" site. I saw people: waiting, smoking, eating, drinking coffee, tying their shoe, holding hands, talking on their phone & so on ...

What I noticed was that no one was ever just doing 1 thing at a time. This makes me think that my figure(s) should not be about just one thing. We are all usually doing or thinking about several things at one time so why not make my piece show more than one thing going on?

What should & should not be memorialized? I saw people smoking but should I "encourage" that?

Should I make a statment against it then? Art is often used to make statments but what about a memorial?

If I did smoking I would like to make a "window" at the figues lung area & fill it with something to show that this area of the figure is being effected negativly.

I would also like to 'balance' the dark, tar, smoke filled, damaged area with something opposite ... like green & growing!

What medium to use? I want to add color to my clear figures but how?

The teacher suggested wrapping my models in fabric first, then taping them to add color. That got me thinking about what would be most cost-effective & yet not too heavy for the tape structure? I came up with tissue paper ...

The idea of tissue paper became an exciting one since there are apparently a lot of things you can make with the colorful, thin, paper. ;o)  

I like the idea of possibly stuffing a part of one of the figures with cranes. I think it would be kind of cool (they are supposed to be good luck) ... & since I know how to make origami cranes ... it would be doable. Yet, how do I tie that in? I thought one of the figures could 'find a penny' and I could fill a whole arm or something with 'lucky' items.

 

Building a 3D Model

Having never built a 3D "to scale" model before, I must say, I was rather intimidated. I mean, I have NEVER so much as built a solar system out of tooth picks & Styrofoam like kids do in the 3rd grade. I had no idea what I was getting into!

Next, " I drew out a "blue print" on a poster board to get a visual idea of how big my model would be.






I then taped off the 21'' x 21'' area that I thought my area was going to end up being. (I was confused about the math & even though I knew my area was only 20'' x 21''ish I wasn't sure how that affected the math of the "to scale" model??) Apparently it had no effect ... good to know.

I taped off the area on my (tri-fold) foam board so that I didn't get paint everywhere.

I managed to only stab myself 2 times during the assembly of my model which is impressive really since I bought the "light weight" blade ... oopps!

Other injuries included: my skin vs. a "high temp" hot glue gun ... grrrr. I hate burning myself, especially with a hot sticky substance that you can't quite get off fast enough! lol. Ah, fun times.

I used a dark silver paint as a base coat.

I thought I would be able to show the seams in the sidewalk by using twine before I spray painted the textured paint top coat. Turns out I was totally wrong and hours of work went to waste. I did press the twine into the board a bit to indent it & used those lines to somewhat guide me when I used a silver sharpie instead to draw the seams in the "cement".

Notice I had to use "labels" to keep from getting disoriented ... all grey gets confusing! lol.

It turns out that the textured paint I picked out takes a VERY long time to dry. I had to get creative on where to dry my model & not have kids or animals get a hold of it. lol.

This is what my "concrete / cement" on my model looked like dry, with the twine, tape & labels removed.

These are a few pictures of the individual pieces I had to make. What the picture doesn't show is that I took apart each piece at least once to get the sizing right. (Even then, it ended up far from perfect!)

I made a wall, long bench, pedestal (where a lamp would go- did not include lamp), a trash can (TOTAL pain!!), stairs & a railing (straws, genius!!)

This is a cell phone photo of the finished product ;o)

I really like this photo ... it shows off the texture well.

I like that this photo shows that I got the right idea at least. ;o)

5 Public Art Pieces

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to post the 5 public Art Pieces:


I went to downtown Puyallup & on base at McChord to document 5 Public Art pieces

The 1st one here is a picture I took of a piece called "Rollerblader"
The next photo is one my husband to of me "performing" how the art piece made me feel. :o)

Rollerblader

Rock out ... x-games



The 2nd one here is a picture I took of a piece called "Night Watchmen"

The next photo is one my husband to of me "performing" how the art piece made me feel. :o)

Night Watchmen





Made me feel happy (owls do); and silly

 

The 3rd one here is a picture I took of a piece called "Turtle Time"

The next photo is one my husband to of me "performing" how the art piece made me feel. :o)

Turtle Time

Love-y

The 4th one here is a picture I took of a piece called "Future Dreaming"

The next photo is one my husband to of me "performing" how the art piece made me feel. :o) 

Future Dreaming

Remember to dream ... child like dreams

My main piece:
"To Live" by Eric Holdener

I am still looking for information on the artist, I even email him on facebook to see if I can find more information.

Artist:

Eric Holdener

When made:

Unknown

Commissioned:

Unknown

Dedicated:

1999 Sculpture dedicated by the American Ex-Prisoners of War, Christmastown Chapter

Who paid for it:

Unknown

Who chose it:

Unknown

Who is the audience?

All Americans, specifically those with access on base.

How did the artist perform?

I feel the artist was not shy about the cruelty of war & the circular movement of the 3 pieces (symbolizing one man's journey) can show the decay of a soldier or the hope and perseverance.

The artist said:

Prisoners of War Memorial - Dedicated 1999 at McChord Air Force Base's Memorial Grove
Tacoma, WA , represents the physical and mental hardship which was endured by soldiers in World War II and Vietnam. But I hoped to represent also the determination of the soldiers to survive and their reliance on each other to never give in to despair”. Eric Holdener.

What is the performance between the piece & the audience?

For me, I feel memorials are meant for the viewer to pause & take note. For this POW piece it also bluntly has them take notice & possibly to take a moment to remember the price that has been paid for their freedom.