Thursday, February 4, 2021

Jessica Brennan "Just the Two of Us"

 

For my piece, I chose the prompt “Choose a Sensation.” After contemplating several sensations, I chose to go for “weightlessness.” To me, pure weightlessness lifts me off of the ground and I feel as if I could take flight and leave the earth behind. I think this sensation can be described as the essence of liberation or freedom from emotional weight when a soul can soar. For this piece, I wanted to create an abstracted form of a dancer doing a backbend because the pose itself is so dynamic without the dancer having to leave the ground. Their head is cast back in abandonment, with arms reaching out, flipped upside down they could be falling blissfully and I think there is a nice duality to the form. I would want to create a human-like form about three feet tall out of steel and high polish the end result to a mirror finish. I would then attach a gold ring or opalescent ring to the two “arms” and possibly the side of the knees to symbolize the entering of a new realm above the earth. I would then want to include “floating” pieces of rock with moss attached to the tops to signify the breaking free from the crust of the earth. They would have to be practically attached to the piece with monofilament but I was hoping to create a field of shards around the figure.

This sketch is lovely Jess. This being said, it will not stand as is. is We need to think of the weight of the steel and the fact that this piece is standing on one small point that gravity will not allow it to stand on.  If you had a base that this piece will physically attach to, as if a public art piece that is bolted to a concrete pad, then it will stand on this one point.  Otherwise, you need to remember that three points is the strongest structural form.  You could hang this piece. Look at Jesse Meyer's work.

Also: Steel figure sculpture


 Some artists I have looked to for inspiration include: David Smith, Bruce Beasley, and Kim Simonsen. I also drew on my love for the falling scene of Into the Spiderverse where the camera flips and instead of falling, Miles looks like he’s rising ( I included an image). I drew inspiration from David Smith’s work because of his abstraction of steel form and how he made a relatively heavy material feel “light-weight.” Bruce Beasley’s work also has a figural quality. His large metal piece looks like someone stretching their calves and his carved piece looks graceful and flowing. I want to try to abstract my figure so that it's recognizable but only with a few clues. I chose Kim Simonsen again because I absolutely love the way he uses living moss on sculpture that creates a mysterious or fanciful mood. I would love to try to get moss to grow on the floating rock shards that were suspended or I would like to successfully* use flocking on them for that soft texture.

Into the Spiderverse

David Smith                                                    Bruce Beasley
Bruce Beasley                                             David Smith



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