Above you will see an image of a recent sculpture that I have completed as part of the Sculpture and Installation class offered at Lincoln Lutheran. This class provides students with the opportunity to watch videos and explore articles on artists to gain inspiration. Sculpture and Installation class also allows students to get creative when working with their hands.
As part of this particular project I enjoyed getting to spend a great deal of time shading. Not only do I think that it added to the overall piece, but it was very entertaining and soothing to complete. Secondly, I also enjoyed mixing the colors. Although it could be tricky at times, I liked getting to learn the art of mixing the perfect colors and utilizing the color grey. Below you will see my artist statement on this project.
—
Artist Statement
Throughout the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to create a face sculpture from cardboard. Describing this piece is challenging because it has been completed with a variety of different aspects. The overall face features a jagged and squared outline, which compliments the use of squares and rectangles on the face itself. I have utilized the colors blue, orange, green, and purple for this project. The background offers muted, more distant hues of these colors, while the shapes in the forefront offer more vibrant tints. I have used black eyelashes, ruby red lips, and white eyes to provide contrast to the rest of the piece. Lastly, shading (with a black colored pencil) has been applied to outline the face, bring depth to the shapes, and divide the background colors. While the project itself is titled, “Funky Face Sculptures,” I believe that my piece is titled, “Abnormally Normal.” Although my cardboard sculpture maintains the different aspects of a face (normal), the overall shapes, colors, and placement of the body parts provide uniqueness (abnormal). Lastly, this piece encompasses both elements and principles of art. Color and value are certainly present as warm and cool, as well as lightened and darkened versions of colors are used. Emphasis is a principle that is shown as the bright red color of the lips calls attention to this particular part of the face.
The funky face sculptures involved a complex series of steps. This particular project has been created from recycled cardboard, hot glue, paint, and black colored pencils. We began by brainstorming possible nose, eye, mouth, and overall face shapes. Secondly, we all sketched a plan for our sculpture. Then, we gathered our supplies. This included cardboard and an X-Acto knife. After cutting out all of our pieces and gluing them onto the desired location, we then began to experiment with colors. Although it was challenging at times to create the “perfect” shade, mixing the color grey into our background colors provided an excellent, muted hue. Lastly, I was able to use the technique of shading across my entire piece. This provided my project with greater variety and depth, and truly completed it.
Thirdly, this piece holds inspiration from other artists, as well as from my own life. Artists such as Kimmy Cantrell have not only pointed to the overall process of creating unique faces, but Kimmy specifically mentioned his use of the color red. Cantrell claimed that there is something sensual and luscious about red lips. Therefore, I also applied a bright red color to the lips on my piece to draw great attention to them. Secondly, this piece also expressed a personal view that I hold in my life. To this day, I believe that the eyes of an individual hold great significance. Not only does everyone have unique eyes, but they encompass underlying stories and knowledge. As a result, I decided to make the eyes on my piece stand out by using a bright white color, as well as by leaving a portion of them as raw cardboard. Together, the eyes and mouth create a mysterious, yet content expression. They leave the viewer questioning what the sculpture could be thinking about.
Overall, my goals as an artist include being more confident with my work and becoming comfortable with trying something new. Although this sculpture forced me to trust the process, in the end, I believe that it certainly provided personal growth as an artist. I was surprisingly pleased with the final result, which allowed me to feel more confident in my work. Secondly, I have never worked with cardboard and a hot glue gun to create such an out-of-the-box face sculpture before. Likewise, this was the first time that I have truly spent a great deal of concentration on combining colors to produce the perfect shade. Both of these experiences allowed me to grow in my skills and techniques as an artist.
In the end, this finished artwork offered great learning opportunities that will influence my future creations. Although this project didn’t turn out exactly as I had imagined it to be (as I had not thought of utilizing that much shading or darkening the background colors), I was able to gain great knowledge. As I spoke on earlier, I learned about the mixing of colors and using the color grey to create a darkened hue. Most importantly, I learned the importance of trusting the process. Although I felt a little bit of doubt when hot gluing the shapes onto the face, in the end, I believe that everything turned out great. With creativity, confidence, originality, and trust, I was able to push through this process. This will be key to remember when approaching future projects.
