Concept Paragraph for Prosthesis [Rough]

Inspired by the humorously unrealistic Santa Claus beards seen across malls and shopping centers around Christmas time I have decided to take on the task of creating a beard prosthetic for the foundations line to mass sculpture project. Comprising of metal wire, twine and string I will be putting together a scraggily and disheveled wearable beard reminiscent of a homeless person or crazed mathematician. The beard will begin with a main armature wrapped around the ears flowing towards the front of the jaw, with branching sections of smaller wire to support the layering and integrity of the beard. Draping down and to the side of these wires will be numerous strands of twine, wire and yarn following no particular style or cut, which will make up the mass of the beard. Each strand will be attached using a generic knot and should require no glue of external fastening. The final product should result in the thick 12-inch beard that you can run your hand through and hopefully fool people into thinking is real.

            The reason I chose the beard for this project is because of its connotations with knowledge and its relationship with social class and stereotypes. The beard is a symbol of age and maturity and becomes a ruler for measuring the passage of time. People with beards are often placed into certain categories and societal groups and for this reason I believe the beard prosthesis will offer a unique opportunity to comment on the way facial hair changes the way we look and interact with people. From the rich and powerful to the unconventional and homeless the beard is a powerful symbol of life and time showing that we truly can’t read a book by its cover. 

Beard Prosthetic Sketch

Below is the final (hopefully) sketch of the beard prosthetic I will be working on for the next two weeks. Included in the sketch are the framework of the armature, a detailed drawing of how the wire will be supported by the ear and how the twine will attach to the beard armature. A description of the beard and a commentary on the history and concept will come in a later post.

Barbara Earl-Thomas Inspiration

About a week ago Barbara Earl-Thomas came and visited the Cornish art department in a lecture and discussion about the way we react and treat ideas of race and ethnicity. In her segment she brought up a specific idea which I believe really hits home with the current project I am working on. During the night Barbara brought up the idea of how we look at people and immediately create a stereotype reaction to the person, changing the way we talk to and interact with that person solely based on the way they look. Basically Barbara was bringing up the old proverb "don't read a book by its cover" which connects perfectly with the way people read those who chose to wear beards and extravagant facial hair. When one sees a person with a beard they are immediately filled with a predisposed set of ideas about that person whether it be thinking of that person as wise or a bum. The beard serves many different faces in society and people choose to treat people differently depending on the specific face. Barbara ultimately taught us to look past our initial gut reaction and see people for who they are rather than how they look. 

Inspirational Artists

Below are a few artists which are inspiring my current line to mass project involving the creation of a beard prosthetic. These artists have delt with the construction of bodily additions and thus reflect the art assignment I am working on at the moment.

Lucy Mcrae & Bart Hess

The collaboration between Lucy Mcrae and Bart Hess deals with the issues of the human body and the desire to modify and enhance the human figure. The specific piece I am gaining inspiration from is the foam beard pictured to the left. The piece is a commentary on the grotesqueness of human facial hair and its role in covering the human face and figure. My project too deals with the way beards conceal identity and in some ways create a face which is unrecognizable. Mcrae and Hess create a prosthesis which  uses a slimy substance to decorate the figure and subsequently enhance the human body. Why do people strive to constantly re-invent themselves with clothing and hair styles? - I may never know


Erin Dollar

Erin Dollar takes on beards with a more light-hearted approach and in turn creates woven pieces which inspire both laughter and deep contemplation. Dollar's pieces have inspired me in a more practical sense lending visual clues as to what my beard prosthesis may ultimately look like. The piece shown to the left depicts a full, thick, dark beard which conveys ideas of wisdom and age - precisely the look I am going for. My project will hopefully yield a facial addition which evokes images of the untamed and uninhibited whilst also shedding light on the shrewdness and sophistication of the people who chose to adorn themselves with full grown beards. Dollar chooses and unique subject matter to base her work around, I commend the courage and originality she wields. From this I can only ask one question: why can't women wear beards all the time?

Sources:
http://www.imadeyouabeard.com/search/label/beards%20i%20made
http://beautifuldecay.com/2009/04/11/lucy-mcrae-bart-hess/

Series of Five Slideshow

Above is the slide show created for my series of five pictures involving the cardboard Etch-A-Sketch. The series depicts the journey of the sketchpad (Etch-A-Sketch) from store shelf to backpack to gasworks park. Enjoy

Response to Art & Fear

No one said being an artist was going to be easy. They tell you its all about perseverance, practice and following your vision, but rarely do people mention how much uncertainty and fear goes into the art making process. This point was no better driven home after reading David Bayles and Ted Orland's article titled Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking.

In the article one specific line caught my attention and hit a particularly tender note with me. The line in question explained how X-rays taken of famous paintings show a remarkable number of mistakes and mess-ups which are never seen in the finished piece. The point of this information is that even famous artists make mistakes and have to constantly experiment through the actual process of making art. This was important to me because I have a serious issue with revising and changing my work on the fly. When I make a mistake I often times throw away the entire project because I feel there can be no salvaging what I just created. The article puts into perspective the idea that screw-ups are something to be learned from and show up even in the most skilled of artists. Ultimately I now understand that learning from the process of the piece can be far more beneficial that creating a finished piece in one thought and one "wave." Art needs to be an experiment of constant change and manipulation and in the end this exploration of our own ability to fix mistakes is one of the most important principles we can learn. 

Everything Etch-A-Sketch

What follows is everything that pertains to the making and final product of my cardboard Etch-A-Sketch. The series of pictures shows the process of the piece starting from preliminary photos of the actual object through maquettes on to the finished product.

Everything I Can Think Of

Everything that comes to mind about an Etch-A-Sketch off the top of my head. This post is in response to an assignment given to us in our Foundations class. 

• Serves as a mechanical contraption for creating contour drawings
• Symbolizes the difficulty in drawing and illustration (especially contour drawing)
• Represents a very hard learning curve - the knobs are often times counterintuitive
• Easy to mess up on drawings by making one wrong turn of the knob
• Can create random and extremely abstract designs
• Recognized as a timeless kids toy - ultimately Etch-A-Sketch created as nothing more than a toy
• Some people can create truly remarkable are with an Etch-A-Sketch
• Mechanical means of drawing translates in some ways to a form of perfection in line quality and stroke
• Looks goofy 

More Gif

Etch-a-Sketch Photoshop Images

The .gif doesn't work on my blog check it out at http://tinypic.com/r/14jlp55/7

A photoshop .gif I created using one image of my Etch-a-Sketch and over 40 frames. This .gif is a play on the idea that creating real, deeply meaningful art on an Etch-a-sketch is virtually impossible for most folks. A large percentage of us when using an Etch-a-Sketch are only able to create rudimentary images ( a house and shrub ) which usually turn out rather awkward. A purposefully laughable image is sketched out on the screen ultimately playing off of the idea that an Etch-a-Sketch is no way of creating real art.

Etch-a-Sketch Five Context

My series of five contextual images with the cardboard Etch-A-Sketch. The idea was that the Etch-A-Sketch would take the place of a sketchbook, going from store shelf to backpack to bus to out in the field. The locations include Mountlake Terrace, UW Red Square and Gasworks Park. 

Digital Imaging Gifs

 

Just a few .gifs I created for my digital imaging class. All of them are under 50 frames and were made totally in Photoshop CS5

Polyhedron Form

A unique sculpture created by attaching eleven cut-out and folded dodecahedrons. This project was really fun and I recommend anyone who has the time cut out some cool 3D objects and play with them. Oh yea, this object creates really cool negative space in the middle and seems asymmetrical due to the large protrusion on the left side of the picture.