My brother was sick a few weeks ago, Sloan was sick this week, and three of my close friends have been sick as well. I am normally very good at not getting sick and avoiding it. Of course Sloan said the other night, "I don't even know if you have really been sick the whole time we have dated/ been married." It's true I don't get sick much. He jinxed me. I have the worst sore throat, runny/ stuffy nose, head cold thing. I can't complain though. It doesn't happen much...
Now I will share with you some finals stuff...
For studio three our concept and requirements were to make two pieces. We had to use electroforming. We had to have a piece that showed “Big and Light” and “Small and Heavy.” This was up to us. We had three rounds of sketches (or more for some of us) where we had to really grasp what we were making. He did not want us to be literal, like make a heavy feather. We had to think deeper and be creative. After a few ideas I decided to go with my concept about beauty, body image, and vanity.
I based it of off these three
verses:
1 Peter 3:3-4
Do not let
your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold
jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person
of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.
1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the
height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on
the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
2 Corinthians 4:16
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is
wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
Tarnish. (My big and light piece.)
To
me, the obsession with beauty is a big issue in our society. I think it should
be taken lighter. It is so big that it is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating
disorder. We have this need to feel
perfect. Magazines, television, and movies make it worse. We look to Hollywood, and we see these
“iconic” people and aim to look as pretty as they seem. It’s so big that not only adults
struggle with body image, but kids do as well. Statistics are showing that:
95%
of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.
50%
of girls between the ages of 11 and 13 see themselves as overweight.
80%
of 13-year-olds have attempted to lose weight.
Sadly,
it is a problem. It’s not just
weight issues either. It is the
hair, make up, and clothes- the whole imagine of self. The more we worry about
ourselves and dwell on how we look, the more vain we become as a society.
Tarnish is a piece designed with much thought to touch base
on this issue.
I
chose circles because we try to be well-rounded people, and the fact it is a
vicious cycle. Naturally, the circle is a annular shape. Not every circle
is perfect in my piece, but that is the point of this topic. It is impossible to be perfect. The
obsession of body issue leaves marks and is hard to get over. For many people with an eating disorder
it is hard to get treatment. In many cases they can’t afford to stay in the
time they need and fall back into their habits. Vanity is a painful thing that hurts you as well as others. To show this, I purposefully left file
and sanding marks on the bezels. I wanted them to appear hurt and tarnished.
The
chain I chose is representative of the chains or shackles a prisoner might
wear. The mechanism is also a lock
(I chose I knock off Louis Vuitton to push concept more.) The lock is an indication that once you
are obsessed, like any habit, it is hard to kick. I also weaved fake pearls, and pearl perfection make-up
balls in the chain(the make up balls are covered in resin where they don't leave make up on you.) I wanted you to see the chain, but wanted to hide it a little. I did this because if you have an issue
weighing you down, you want to cover it and not allow others to see your
problem.
To
cover the eating disorder part, I electroformed four Barbie boobs. For me, this was the best way to show that. Let's be honest, boobs push the "aim for perfection" concept. I don't think this needs much explanation. I also chose to use flesh
colored make up to talk about skin and indicate the eating disorders as well.
Lastly,
I broke the mirror and made the make up broken or rough to show how easily
beauty fades and how much maintenance it can be.
Beauty will tarnish and fade
away, butut inner beauty is eternal.
Here is my final piece.
Renewal (My small
and heavy piece.)
Since we have such a problem
with obsessing over self, and being beautiful is a big deal, I think that it should
be taken lighter. I flipped the
table and thought of our insides.
When we focus on self, this makes our insides rot and worthless. When you are vain, you are envious,
jealous, lustful, superlative, comparative, and many more bad qualities. It causes gossip, and so much
more. It is so heavy that we make our inner self small and less important. At first it
was hard for me to show the opposite of vanity. So I looked at my three Bible
verses to get inspired for this piece.
What I
took from the verses was that we should focus on our heart and have a gentle
and quiet spirit. What is it about our heart we should really work on? We
should be more loving and compassionate to others, which in turn makes us think
less about the self.
For this
piece, I chose pods because to me that shows safety and security. All of my
pods are a handmade wire-construction which I basically wove thin wire around.
It was treated like basket weaving/ crochet. A gently and quiet spirit focuses
less on self and more on others.
When I picture a gentle and quiet spirit, I see a safe and warm
spot. Something "warm and fuzzy." My pods remind me of
abstract hearts, which pushed it beyond just a pod. They are heart pods, that hold fur, that looks like a
sheep. Sheep fur is
symbolic of pureness. The pods
also were to show that once you have these good qualities, you want to keep
them safe and hold them.
Since I
wanted them to be kept safe and held, I chose to use no mechanism. I wanted it to feel delicate and light,
almost like a scarf. I wanted the
wearer to have the need to feel that they should hold the pods when they walked or moved.
The chain
is a simple design. They are “D”or
“C” shapes that play off of the form of the backside of my pods. Some of them are thread wrapped to tie the fur with the links.
The holding of the pods is also to
protect the key that’s found in one of the pods. This key is the one that unlocks the lock on the other necklace. This
is to show that in order to feel free, we must gain a pure heart as well as a
gentle and quiet spirit.
That is
how we will be renewed.
Here is my final piece:
Lastly, in Rendering we had to render a set (Earring, necklace, ring) that showed "us." After a round of sketches I decided to focus on "us" by looking at my family, DNA, as well as Sloan and me as a family. I surprisingly really loved this class. When I start rendering, I become addicted, and I could literally never stop. The more you render the more realistic it becomes. Of course, I look at this and see more things I could do, but I had to stop and go to class... Here is the final rendering:
Sorry for the length. I hope you enjoyed.
I can't believe I have a six week break. It hasn't hit me yet! Yay for me being normal again and family time:)
xoxo Lilly
