Exhibition Text: For my project, I wanted to incorporate culture from Mexico. “Travel through Culture” was made for me to feel more connected with that culture. I created this piece entirely with cardboard and hot glue, using a variety of cardboard, from cereal boxes, candy boxes, packaging boxes and so on. Inspired by {}, and their usage of patterns, colors and proportions to create a visually interesting piece. |
Ideas:
With this project, I wanted to do something that would represent my culture. I also used this as an excuse for me to learn more about my culture as I noticed I've been more and more distant from my heritage. What I wanted to do in the beginning was a beautiful Mexican dress, and related to a story I used to read when I was little, Juan Diego y La Virgen de Guadalupe. My mother and father told me and my sibling this story all the time, and I thought it resonated with me lots and although i'm not religious anymore, I still think about this story a lot. With this story in mind, I wanted to do the Mexican dress covered in flowers all over the place, like all the flowers he had. However, the more I looked at this idea, I realize I wast incorporating the "Hybrid" part of the project, so I put this idea aside, and built more ideas from what I already have.
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Iglesia del Sagrado de Jesus (Fransisco I. Madero, Durango)
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My second idea incorporates the Mexican dress, however this time, I mix it with folklore from Mexico, in this case, Alebrijes. Alebrijes are creatures known as spirit guides, most known from Aztec folklore. They are very colorful and usually one creature is a combination of different animals. I felt this idea incorporated the "Hybrid" aspect of the project very well. Had an idea of doing a animal head with lots of different colored cardboard.
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Process:
Sketches:
My first sketch was just the Mexican dress with flowers all over, like Juan Diego. After A critique in my class, I added the bull head onto the dress. I also removed the flowers as it would be too hard to make them all. buey
Corset:
First I wanted to start off making the bust part of the dress, I felt doing a corset would make things easier. However as I was working, I realized that the corset didn't look right. Before even making the corset, I measured my waist and bust however when I tried on the corset, it didn't fit, it was too stiff so I started all over again. The second time I did this, I first wrapped myself with tin foil, about 2 layes, and tapped all around my waist and bust. Then I took some scissors and did an incision in the front of the corset. After that I tapped the cut out part back together and began gluing wet cardboard to the tin foil. I did 2-3 layers of cardboard until I was satisfied, then I carefully removed the tin foil.
As I continued working, I was just not proud of the dress, it didn't look right so I scratched that idea and decided to just focus on the head.
Creature Head:
The head was the most hardest part, for my first prototype, I measured my head and make to circles, one that could fit my head in and the other that would ask as a stop, or structure for the mask to not move. From their I keep building it however it just wasn't working out, it didn't look at all how I envisioned it so I started all over again. The problem with both the corset and head prototype is that I didn't think about utilizing wet cardboard until later on.
For the horns, I took apart thick cardboard to make it thinner, as it is easier to bend. The horns were made with different sized circles, going from large to small, and then stacking them over one another to make the shape of a horn. |
The second time I looked up deer heads and looked for videos or art people made where they used geometric shapes to make a head. Luckily I found one and began following their steps, eventually I had a good base. I took a break from the project, when I came back I realized I didn't like the head too much...again. This time I used what I already made and built from there. I used wet cardboard to fiz the eye sockets to be more accurate to the deer, I also fixed a bit of the sizing since it was a bit tight on my head, Eventually I was happy with my final base.
To make the cardboard look like fur, I cute the pieces into thin rectangles. While interchanging the colors I glued them on. I did this all throughout except the horns. I picked out colorful cardboard to achieve the main focus of alebrijes, their beautiful colors. I only used three colors, as I wanted them to overlap and once again show that there's texture. Around the eyes. I did a layer of white to add dimension.
This was my finished piece. I wanted to have the cardboard be very thin to the point where it does look like fur. I think I achieved however I wished I had found a bit more color so that it looks more interesting however I like how it turned out. I like how textured it look and although it doesn't have a cohesive pattern like my inspiration from {} it has a colored pattern.
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Reflection:
I am not the proudest of this piece. I like the components, the head, horns and colors however I am sad that I couldn't get the dress part of the piece to work as it was a big part of my idea. However, I believe scratching that idea out not only saved me from stress, but it shifted all my focus to just the head. Before when I had just the dress idea, I found myself rushing to get things done before their due date, the rushing caused for the structures to be not well done, and not fitted. Later on in class, we had a small critique with UWM and I was told that I used do texture, which is how I decided to do over-lapping rectangles for fur, something I wasn't going to do in the beginning. Due to my dress not working out, I wanted to texture of the head and the colors to be the main focus, and I wanted to do it well. During our UWM trip, walking on the run away and hearing the thoughts from my peers made me feel proud about my finished piece. Seeing the other pieces, I thought of things I could improve on if I were to do something like this again.
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Compared to inspiration:
Similarities:
Differences:
- Similarities I can find is perhaps the composition. For us to achieve our desired results we needed the base to be sturdy and readable. Once the base is good is when you can lay down the colors and the detailed needed to complete the piece.
Differences:
- I relied purely on color to make the sculpture however Lauro made sure to not only use vibrant colors but also make shapes. This is due to the difference in medium, his being a smooth surface while mine being very asymmetrical and not smooth. Not only that but I add texture on the piece to add a sense of feeling.
Connections to ACT:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Not only are Alebrijes colorful, but the color are all in a shape format, each color following a different pattern, I myself did not do that and just cut the colors in rectangles and squares.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
All Alebrijes are very colorful, so my first approach was figuring out what I would use to add color to the cardboard as without the color it would lose its essence.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Alebrijes are a big part of Mexican Culture, more so from the Aztecs. They are spirit animals that guide your soul.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My inspiration was Alebrijes, folklore animals from Mexico. I wanted to do this because they are very colorful.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I didn't think I would use color at all as I didn't collect colorful cardboard, however I ended up finding some cereal boxes and used those instead.
MLA
Marquez, RJ, et al. “Mystical Alebrijes Came to Life after Mexican Folk Artist's Fever Dream.” KSAT, KSAT San Antonio, 15 Oct. 2020, https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2020/10/15/mystical-alebrijes-came-to-life-after-mexican-folk-artists-fever-dream/.
Not only are Alebrijes colorful, but the color are all in a shape format, each color following a different pattern, I myself did not do that and just cut the colors in rectangles and squares.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
All Alebrijes are very colorful, so my first approach was figuring out what I would use to add color to the cardboard as without the color it would lose its essence.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Alebrijes are a big part of Mexican Culture, more so from the Aztecs. They are spirit animals that guide your soul.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My inspiration was Alebrijes, folklore animals from Mexico. I wanted to do this because they are very colorful.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I didn't think I would use color at all as I didn't collect colorful cardboard, however I ended up finding some cereal boxes and used those instead.
MLA
Marquez, RJ, et al. “Mystical Alebrijes Came to Life after Mexican Folk Artist's Fever Dream.” KSAT, KSAT San Antonio, 15 Oct. 2020, https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2020/10/15/mystical-alebrijes-came-to-life-after-mexican-folk-artists-fever-dream/.