So it is the end of another semester of college, only 3 more semesters to go! It has been a little hectic, trying to get all my work done on time. Thankfully art major don't have finals like most other majors due, you just have all the projects due at the same time. Here are my final projects in all my studio classes.
First up, figure illustration.
The project was the create a drawing of something that was 75% non-human, and that could be anything, another animal, robot, goo, food. I chose an alien bug! This drawing is inspired by Octavia Butler's "Blood Child." Butler was one of the very few African-American women in science fiction. Her stories often include social criticism on issues of feminism and racial equality. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards and was a very cool lady all around. She describes her short story "Blood Child" as her "pregnant man story." It's very good, a little gory, but really interesting. I totally recommend it.
Up Next: Printmaking.
This was my first linoleum print, and it was both wonderful and anxiety-inducing. The linoleum was a dream to carve, it was so soft and did everything I wanted it to; unlike wood, which just does whatever it feels like doing, it splinters, it's really though. . .
Unfortunately though, the more times I put it through the press the more it stretched out, it grew a couple of millimeters both length and width-wise.Even though this is a minuscule amount, it makes a difference on a print that depends on correct alignment. So each time I put a print through the press I got a different result, it was maddening. Usually I get 90% good prints and screw up the rest. This time I would consider that only 30% of them are good. Most of the rest aren't terrible, they are just so obviously out of alignment that I was ashamed of them.
And look how many I had to print! 22 all together. Here's one that turned out pretty well.
It's a blood orange. Our theme this time was heart, so I thought about "heart" as the center of something, like the heart of a city, or an artichoke heart; and then blood because hearts pump blood! This one is not real deep, but it's pretty.
Lastly: Sculpture!
Let me tell you that metal work is not my thing. I can be in the wood shop all, sculpt with clay all day, but metal sculpture, yuck. I'm not sure if it was the uncomfortable gloves and head/ear/eye protection we had to wear, or the 50 lb saws and other tools I had to manipulate, or how unforgiving metal is, but it was not fun to make this tiny pill bottle. It looks good in the end, but I don't plan on doing this again anytime soon.
So this one is a bit complex. It is a trophy both for myself and for modern medicine. I know that I cannot give it to modern medicine, since it's made up of a bunch of people, ideas, chemical compounds, equipment, etc., etc., but it's still a sort of ode to modern medicine, science-based medicine. The base represents the steps it took through years of trials and errors to get to where we are today: where broken bones can be healed, where many cancers can be cured, where half of children no longer get polio and die, and where I can get the medicine I need to (mostly) function like a human.
I thought the bronze was appropriate not only because it's a nice, shiny material, but also because it was the more expensive option (the other one was aluminum); and we all know medicine can be expensive. Also, bronze in sporting events signifies 3rd place, gold is first, then silver, then bronze. This means that even though science-based medicine has made it this far, it's not perfect yet. Humanity has yet to eradicate many diseases, and maybe one day we could alter babies DNA in utero to take out the genes that cause Hemophilia or Down Syndrome. Maybe one day we could heal burns instantly. But we're not there yet.
So that's my end of the semester wrap up. But don't think that just because school is over I will not be arting, I have a lot of things I want to do. Let's see how many I can get to when I'm not binge watching shows or baking gingerbread cookies.
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