Momento

My momento represents the memory of my childhood forts and tree houses in the woods. My neighbors, my sister, and I lived on a nature park and acres of woods that was our playground. We created many different "cities" throughout the woods and marked tress to be able to find them.
My design of my momento began with a piece of balsa wood and I chiseled out slots for the rounded balsa wood. I wanted this element of the thinner pieces of balsa wood coming out of the thick piece to represent the branches and roots we created out forts with. The black sharpie line work represented the map we created of all of our spots in the woods and trails we created.
The challenge of this project was to create a unified design out of three materials that correlated  with the memory I wanted to recreate. I chose to focus on three aspects of nature, connections, and support in my design because when I think back on my memory those are the feelings I reside with.



Process

When researching and finding inspiration the first artist who stuck out to me and had a similar style I was looking for was Mel Kendrick.  His pieces are created with balance and unity by placing different pieces of wood and creates a tribal feel

http://www.melkendrick.com/

     

Hilary Sanders was another artist that gave me inspiration on how to create a momento in an abstract way that incorporates the image or idea, as well as any textures that could correspond.

http://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/sum-substance-hilary-sanders#sthash.XoW3Wkp5.dpuf   

Meret Oppenheim's work is amazing! I love her use of texture to create a complete opposite image. The use of fur to make a tea cup shows how you can place a memory with a feeling and it does not always have to be a realistic idea.

wikipedia.com

On Logging

"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale."

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience."

"The Souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body."

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy."

"Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss."

Map Relief

For my map relief I focused on the idea of my close knit community in my home town and the connections I have with the people there. My design element include triangle shapes that I folded to create depth. I then clustered and connected the triangle pieces, some more clustered then others. I wanted the different shapes and sizes of the triangles to represent the different connections one makes with the people in their lives. I added string to connect some triangles that had distance between them to represent that when we grow older, we still keep these connections. My overall design incorporated negative space and balance in composition to portray my own representation of a map. 

Process:

Research:

Origami Paper, Grace Bonney

From the start I wanted to use triangles as my component, but it was not until I looked at Grace Bonney's work that I realized I can create depth through one paper triangle.

Soap Carvings

Final Pieces:

I began my carving by outlining a basic shape to start with and then carving to scale which parts of the rooster was larger. I chose to begin with the tail and then size the rest of the body with precise steps to make sure I was visualizing each part of the rooster. Taking into account the scale of the plastic rooster to the size of my soap resulted in having to carefully watch my carving to make sure I was not veering from the size and height of the bird. My first attempt was the white rooster, the soap was harder and I could more easily control my carvings. The second attempted I used a different kind of soap that was much softer and made it difficult to maneuver the soap and the softness of the soap created many challenges for me regarding taking away to much in places and adding detailed pieces. 

Process: 

3D to 2D

This is my balsa wood sculptures that I brought into Photoshop and duplicated and put a filter to make it brighter and created popcorn!