sculpture and photography

          using Andy Goldsworthy as inspiration I have created a gradient from brown to yellow using the vivid autumn leaves spread across a white background to enable them to stand out. With nature as a theme within my art it would be incomprehensible to go without using at least something natural within my work as an experimental piece. On its own this piece has not chance of being considered as a final as it is essentially a pile of organised leaves, however I do intent to incorporate this natural rescores into a final to bring out both sides of my theme.     

this sculpture is about 40cm in length and is inbuilt with a motor that allows the jaw to open and close. modelled as a tyrannosaurs rex I had used wire mesh to form the centre in which as covered in paper mache and then mod rock to make painting it significantly easier.   

 

      

not long ago I made a birdhouse with my mother for the garden, not long after it had been built blue tits had nested in it and for the time after small chirps could be heard when close to it. this is one of me personal favourite photographs as  it is personal to me and represents the theme of nature.

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sometimes when out walking the dogs I will bring my camera as more often than not there will be images of wildlife. this photo in particular shows an unfortunate insect caught in a spiders web. 

 

After experimenting with several different mediums I decided it would be best to create a sculpture using wire like the art of Christopher Gasparian. For this a human figure was used as this is what the artist focus on in his art. The sculpture has been made to ensure that the limbs can be moved by reducing the density of the wire around those areas such as the elbows and knees, in addition to this the figure has a scarf and a pair of gloves made of a teacake wrapper since I beloved it would add a little more personality to the sculpture and allow it to fit in with a leafy backdrop. Only taking two hours this does have potential to be a final outcome idea.

After creating a few other pieces using wire I decided that it may be best to use wire in two dimensions rather than three to construct two foxes and a crow in addition to a larger wolf. this series of animal figures were made by intertwining wire with all of them with the exception of the large wolf in my folder made using a single strand of wire. after constructing the smaller animals, it became apparent that they would not show well on white paper and as a result they were placed on black paper instead. it was very enjoyable making these however it may take a second glance to realise what some of them are meant to be but overall I am pleased with these as they show both sides of my theme in a way that is presentable in a book in the style of Christopher Gasparian.

 

 

 

Final peice mock

Final outcome

As the autumn leaves turn vivid shades of orange as well as earthy shades of brown I decided to take advantage of this and use these natural products as a frame for my outcome, to encircle and reflect the old technology it will become part of. the technology in question would be the use of clocks as this technology is some of the oldest around despite advancing greatly clocks in many cases still rely on a series of cogs and other unseen parts to keep them running.

Representation

Each of the mechanical and natural components has an animal that is incorporated into the piece in which as presented and created so that they are relevant to each aspect within the final. A bird, light and free, leaving the tree it has known for so long spending the remainder of its life to drift and soar on the wind until it must eventually come to rest at the base of tree from it was born, made of the dull leaves that become more vivid toward the tips of its wings and tail, in all shades and hues of red. The fox, cunning and precise, like clockwork, copper fur and silver jaws that sway all but time itself as it slinks through the autumn of its life, into winter, drawn in watercolour pencils to exhibit its brilliant hues of orange and yellowing bones. together these juxtapose to create my theme of technology and nature while taking advantage of the season of autumn.

Materials

This piece uses a somewhat wide range of materials as of which will be listed below.

• parts necessary to make a functioning clock that is the centrepiece of this work, including the hands, face and battery pack. the face of the clock is an antique which is coloured with age, in addition to this another clock face is used to add draw more attention to the central piece.
• wire allow the leaves to be suspended and shaped around the clock to frame the image, in addition to this wire was used to make the base for the bird as wire is light, flexible and sturdy. to connect the wire to the clock I punctured holes through the paper in which the clocks are mounted, specifically where holes are in the clock face.
• leaves are one of the other major components of this piece as it adds juxtaposition to the image between technology and nature, the leaves were used to cover the bird with yellow for the beak, brown for the body and brown-orange for the wings. 
• all of this was mounted on a thick paper background in which the fox was drawn using water colour crayons.

Development

During the process of creation, the final result does not mirror the initial vision as for example I did initially intend to use drawn cogs and after they had been completed I was unsure whether or not they aid or hinder the final image, as for one they took some of the attention from the fox, therefore after some thought I decided to cover them with leaves and the smaller clock face, this change overall did greatly improve the piece. Another change was that in fact the old clock was used covers the clock face that had been painted, the reason for this change is similar to the cogs that the original was far too bright and took attention away from the fox, and as a result had to be changed.

Summary

overall I am pleased with how the end product looks, however there are some aspects that do not meet my ideal, the main issue is where the antique clock face covers the initial painting as it still draws some attention away from the fox, in addition to this it can be questioned whether or not the use of drawings make the final better or worse, as the bird essentially is the star of the show getting the most attention from peers and tutors, which begs the question, whether I should have simply used my time to have made two sculptures rather than a sculpture and a painting? Despite this however the final result does surpass my initial ideal through the use of additional materials and constant improvements.