Rules:

1. Draw looking up while sitting under a tree
2. Draw the negative space of the sky on black paper with silver for 5 min
3. Draw positive space of the trees and branches on butcher paper with black for 5 min
4. Cut the drawings out
5. Sew them together

 

Challenges:

After the first 5 drawings, I was tired. The drawing while looking up became more like blind contour drawing as I was looking less at my paper and more up through the trees at the shapes and forms I was seeing. This was more automatic than I expected, which was kind of nice. But when it came to cutting, I realized how much conscious thinking and mental planning I had to do in order not to cut out the wrong parts. I ended up abandoning trying to hard to cut out he right parts and keep the paper all together in one piece. I tied to let the cutting be almost as automatic as the drawing, and focused less on whether I was doing it “right.”

I shared all of this in our first critique about the first 5 that I had made:

Questions that came up throughout critique:

What does a layer mean?

What is the complexity of the relationship between layers?

Are the objects on surface? Are objects revealing the surface, or being revealed through the surface?

What’s the purpose of sewing?

Could I spend less time drawing, and more time drawing with thread?

Why red thread? – scars, blood, visible

Why thread?

 

Answers and Ideas Going Forward:

I was asked to interrogate myself about the purpose of sewing. So I did:

I like the concept and aesthetic idea of utility. I like seeing the seams, the idea of seeing the inside on the outside, and the ability to see what is holding two things together. Because I am essentially mashing two images into one, even through they are technically two different components of the same image, the visibility of the stitch across the paper shows he part of the process in which I force the two components to become one. I am okay with the fact that zipping across the cut-outs with my sewing machine appears unnatural, as that reflects the inseparability of the negative and positive space, and the mental capacity it takes to draw each part independently. The sewing represents the inability to mentally separate them and portray them accurately.

A comment was made about flipping the pieces over so that the black is in front, which gives more of the silhouette look that I thought about prior to starting the project. The red stitching also stands out a lot more when the pen and silver marks are gone and not distracting from it. Facing the way they are in the photos above, they have more of a topographic association, and I like how the stitching looks like roads or rivers on a map, cutting through the land.

Going forward, I’m going to think more consciously about where and how I sew on the pieces, using the thread as another instrument of drawing rather than just an element that holds the pieces together. I also might play with dimension, and different cutting strategies that will hold the pieces together better on their own. I may also reverse the order and have the black sewn on top, depending on the piece.

 

 

 

TRICYCLE DRAWING PROJECT

SPLIT is a process-oriented piece:

– I sat in front of two children’s tricycles, one pink and purple, and one red.

– I wrote for 15 minutes about what they made me think of. I wrote about how my dad used to ride a big wheel and race his friend Craig when they were little kids. They would race around the apartment complex, and meet on the other side, seeing who could get there first. My dad always left his tongue hanging out when he focused, so when they crashed into each other, his tongue ended up getting pinched between their handle bars, almost cutting his tongue in half.  

– I drew ten children’s tricycles on the same sheet of paper, overlapping one another and creating shapes, lines, and compositions through the abstractions my layered gesture drawings made.

– I did some research about tongues in relation to the writing I did while looking at the tricycles, looking at taste buds and the inside of lizard tongues, finding some really interesting textures and patterns. I liked the vascular aspect of the images I saw, and decided to get close up and create something scientific and organic. 

– I added and subtracted, using erasers and vine charcoal, which was pretty much the only medium I used throughout the process. Finding composition in the craziness I had created was interesting, as I wanted to find balance but had to create some that wasn’t there.

– I used the various layers of matter I had created to fill the composition appropriately, and balance the dark bottom right corner out with the darker pieces in the top left. I also fleshed out the bumpy texture with a touch of white pastel to give contrast and dimension. 

PROGRESSION

I’m always looking for ways to layer, which may mean flatting or giving objects dimension but not in a way that necessarily makes them identifiable. One thing that pleased me to hear in critique is that the content I created here was familiar, but still unidentifiable, fantastical, and kind of gross. I can see how the space within the frame is a little confusing, but I don’t know if I mind. I think it adds to the idea that we’re looking under a microscope.

 

 

 

This installation is centered around the idea of memory and the information stored in the mind, using the concept of multiples as a visual communication. The wooden cabinet containing glass pieces is representative of the mind, as it is the most commonly and frequently accessed form of storage. Hanging from the inside of the cabinet to communicate fragility, the various glass pieces serve as memories and data which are constantly being influenced by the light coming through them and the dirt that has settled on their surfaces. Though this installation is meant to emulate my grandmother’s old china cabinet and collection of dishes within it, the transparency and suspension of the objects inside imply the fragility of memory and it’s tendency to be influenced by emotion and time. We rely so much on our ability to remember, though our brains are not the most credible resource and are susceptible to change.