Purposeful Connection.
Sacred Vessel. Clay and Found Object. 17.78 cm tall. Exhibition Text:
This piece shows the connection between one's self and the activities people do to shape there characteristics. It shows my appreciation to my helmet and the seriousness in concussions in sports. Made out of clay and a found object. Inspired by Joe Brenman. |
Process :
To start this project, I started to think of things that were meaningful to me to try to get ideas. I began to brain storm and do planning sketches. Roller derby will forever be the first thing to come to my mind. It is what I am most passionate about and it is something I can always demonstrate my feelings for. My position I play in roller derby is called the jammer. So, on my helmet I wear a helmet cover with a large star on it. That is me on the right picture with the jammer helmet cover on my helmet. in my roller derby career so far I have had two concussions. One with my helmet on and one without. The one without was much more serious, I went unconscious and I still do not remember it to this day and it was about two years ago. Both concussions were only months apart. Fortunately, those have been my only injures and I am still playing derby without any brain damage from those injures. Concussions have gotten a lot more attention and have been taken more serious in many sports and that is a good thing. They are very serious injures and my helmet help avoid more concussions and the severeness in those injures. In this piece, my brain is the sacred piece and my helmet is the vessel that keeps my brain active and healthy to keep playing the sport I love. The picture on the right is the still wet clay. You can see the size comparison and the helmet is just a bit larger than the brain. It was a little difficult to visualize the brain as a brain. But I knew paint would clear that up. Both pieces are pretty heavy. Even though, I did hollow out both pieces.
I used Joe Brenman as my artist inspiration. His clay sculptures are colorful. He uses vivid colors to finish off his sculptures. |
I started with a planning sketch. I kind knew what I wanted in my head. It is very easy for me to put my ideas on a piece of paper to create them. I am most comfortable with 2D art. I am in no means a sculptor. I not that great in the 3D arts. So I have my planning sketch on the left. I wanted the viewer to know what both objects were and see both clearly that is why the helmet is not completely covering the brain. Now I made my clay to sculpt them. I made way to much clay from myself. Using the pug mill was very difficult. My clay came out good though.
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At this point, both pieces were completely dry. They were still very heavy. I then put them in the kiln to be fire. Which made me very nervous. I have never been successful with the firing process for all of my pieces during my years at Reagan. And with no surprise to me, both of these pieces blew up in the kiln. Thankfully, they were both repairable. The top half of the helmet came off and the brain stem fell off. I hot glued the helmet back together but I could not fix the brain stem. then had to use plaster to fill in the broken cracks. I just plastered over where the brain stem was for the brain. I plastered the whole top of the helmet. The plaster was very messy but dried very fast. I let it sit for a day, then I sanded it down to make it smooth. At this point, since my pieces blew up, I could not use the glazes. So I put a layer of gesso on both pieces and decided to use oils. I have a love hate relationship with oil paints. But for my helmet I wanted it to resemble the helmet covers my team uses, so the star is a lime green and the rest is black. Then I put a layer of red / pink on the brain. Then layered reds and pinks on top of it.
Since I used oil paints, it takes a very long time to dry. So I left it alone for a couple of days to try to dry a little bit. Then I cut an electric cord and glued it onto where the brain stem was supposed to be on the brain. The back of the helmet as an electrical input on the back. It is not actually the size of one so I couldn't fit the real electrical cord into it.
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Reflection:
I really liked my idea and the meaning behind it. But it did not turn out really how I wanted it. It would have looked way better if it didn't break and if I could have used glaze to finish off the piece. It still is some what of a success. I think it gets my message across.
I really liked my idea and the meaning behind it. But it did not turn out really how I wanted it. It would have looked way better if it didn't break and if I could have used glaze to finish off the piece. It still is some what of a success. I think it gets my message across.