Medium: Mixed Media (Clay, Moss, Rocks, Beads, Wood, Acrylic Paint) Completed: March 13, 2022 Exhibition Text: “Overgrown Sight” shows how our world continues to be overgrown by hatred and malice, everyday a new tree forms whether it is of pain or anger regarding how our world continues to be destroyed. Inspired by Klara Kristalova and her sculptures whom all have interesting stories to tell, taking into inspiration her way of telling a story through her pieces and leaving their meaning up to interpretation.As well as Paul Nash’s way of painting, and his ability to control the arts omitting feeling with color.
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Inspiration: Paul Nash and Klara Kristalova
I began looking into painters as I wanted to find a inspiration for how i;ll paint the sculpture. I already knew I wanted muted colors for the tree and hand and a bright color for the water. For the muted colors I used inspiration from We are making a new world by Paul Nash. I love the feeling you feel as you look at this piece, as when I look at it I feel some sort of sadness coming from it, something I would like to achieve with my piece. The amount of value each subjects, and the colors used play a role in conveying this feeling. This piece is a representation of the outcome of the First World War with the use of oils on canvas, his major goal was to depict the consequences of war.
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We are making a new world (1918) by Paul Nash
Klara Kristalova, Spring, 2006
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I already knew into this I wanted my inspiration to be an artist that heavily works with sculpting. I came across Klara Kristalova who has very interesting pieces regarding almost mutations on a human, It is done in a very subtle, delicate way and I was immediately intrigued by her work. Most of her works are made of ceramics. She wants to portray tales in her pieces, inhabiting feelings of loneliness, fear, love, sadness, etc. Not only that but her pieces are influenced by her own memories, nightmares she had as a kid and childhood fantasy stories she was told. |
Planning:
1st Idea: My first idea revolved around losing track of time. A hand made out of clay, marbles on the hand, some falling (hold onto by string), perhaps it’s on top of a clock? And the clock was clacked by a marble. The numbers could be in different orders (or falling barely holding on.) I want it to look cluttered and make you think. Out of place or out of order, scattered pieces trying to be put back together, like a puzzle. My plan was to buy a clock at a thrift store, but when I went I couldn't find any so I had to come up with a second idea in-case this wouldn't work out. |
I wanted to make a simpler version of my first idea. Therefore, I came up with this. I wanted to have a base drawing of how I wanted my piece to look so I digitally drew my concept using pictures I took of my hand. I wanted this idea to revolve around the bystander effect. No matter how hard you try to avoid what is happening around you, you will always see it and part of you will feel guilty for not doing anything in that said situation (the glass shards representing guiltiness.) Looking more into it, I was scared as to how I work with glass without having a injury happen. I liked the idea but I just wasn't sure how I felt about it.
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2nd Idea: Similar to my first idea, my second idea also has a hand made out of clay. The hand would basically be in a shape of a tree, and would have moss, leaves, rocks around it to make it love Overgrown. I realized my first idea had many components that I didn't have and could not find so I came up with a alternative, therefore I didn’t exactly have a meaning to go along with it. My first idea and the rendition of it were not working out so I had no choice but to work with this idea. With help from my inspiration, Klara Kristalova, I fixed my original idea. |
I also began brainstorming the materials I'll use for this project. I did this by drawing a prototype of how I want my sculpture to look. Keeping in mind that this is a mixed media piece, I made sure not to rely too much on one material to do all the work. I wanted each material to have one purpose only, to take advantage of as many materials as possible. |
Process:
I began with the main component of the piece, the hand. Since clay takes longer to dry, I wanted make sure I had to have this done in time before I added the other supporting components. I followed a basic tutorial on YouTube starting off with 3 different shaped rectangles. I connected them and proceeded to cut the indents on which the fingers will be. From there I continued shaping until I was happy with the desired result. I encounter many problems along the way. First problem was how stable the wrist was. The hand part keep tilting due to it being heavier than the base so I continued adding clay to it until it was stronger. While doing this I had a heavy object for the hand to lean on so nothing would fall. |
I wanted the fingers to originally by more far apart like the drawing I made however I realized how hard and difficult it was to get them to be like that due to them not having a better support system, so I opted for them to instead be close together. After adding a bunch of clay to the wrist area, it was finally able to stand in place without the object holding it in place. After finishing the hand I added the eye component to the middle of it. The clay took about 2-3 days to dry completely. During these days, I would check up on it to make sure it was drying well, sometimes coming black and fixing little details. My greatest fear was if I would be able to remove it from the table, how heavy it would be, or if it would be very fragile. Luckily, once it dried everything was fine, it was quite heavy but that was expected. |
Once the clay fully dried, I added the overgrown part of it. With moss, black and green rocks, I added them onto the sculpture with glue. However, I realized right away that hot glue wasn't really leaving a strong bonding between the rocks and the sculpture. I wasn't sure what to do so I looked it up and it seems gorilla glue is the best option so that problem was resolved. Originally, my plan was to sand the clay to make it smother but after it dried, I like the rough texture it had, it made it seem as due is what part of the world and its terrain so I kept it this way. I wanted the hand to look as due is was very old, like an ancient monument. Compared to my inspiration, Klara, I wanted rough texture rather than a smooth surface to work with. I feel as though if I had made it smooth, it would have not convey that "old" look.
To explain the different components, the eye represents humans, and how we see the problems going on in the world however we are stuck in place not able to do much to stop it. The hand symbolizes the world, and whole it's still infact in tack but it is damaged. The moss it the the problems of the world and the feelings we feel when we see them. It is a representation of violence, anger and sadness. |
I took a break from my piece for about 2 days. When I came back to it I felt as though it needed more, it felt incomplete. I asked my father to cut a square shaped piece of wood, in which I turned into a base for my sculpture. I glued the hand firmly to the base,making sure to add lots of glue so it would not fall off. Then, I grabbed my clay again and made roots all over the place, this process took about 2 hours. I made sure to look at pictures of tree while I did this. Originally, I wanted the hand to be more of a rock, but then I thought about it and felt a tree would be more interesting looking and it would still fit the theme I was going for. After, over the roots dried, I encountered a lot of problems. The clay I added began chipping and cracking. I purposely took out the pieces that were very loose and glued them down one by one, most of the pieces stayed so all I did was add glue to the cracks, therefore it has more support. After the glue was dried, I began to paint, using a light muted brown for the base (mixed with orange + blue with a bit of red), for the base and black and dark blue for the shading. I wanted the roots to be very define, making the shading very dark made sure of this. I left one large area flat with no roots as that is where the water will go.
Then I began gluing the pebbles and rocks, During this process, I wasn't entirely sure of the rocks would stay but just hoped for the best. I added the pebbles in the crevices, around the roots, and anywhere that need it. After, I began gluing the moss around the hand, and need the roots, not too much but enough to show that it is overgrown. Once the glue dried, I grabbed my acrylic paint again painted the area where the water will be, I also added some sort of "waterfall" coming from the eye to represent tears. Before, it dried I added white where it touched other surfaces to add movement. |
Critique:
Similarities:
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Differences:
Klara Kristalova, Moth
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Reflection:
Overall, I am very proud of this piece. I enjoy working with clay greatly so going into this project I already knew from the beginning that I wanted to use this specific material. I am happy with its overall shape and the way the whole piece flows, not only that but I also like the meaning that goes along with it. The meaning is not what I really what I intended the piece to be about however, when I looked at it, something clicked in my head and came up with the idea of world destruction. I think we need a lot of improving as humans, we see everything violence, hatred for each other and as you grow up you see it more and more. It saddened me to see as well how the new generations of children are growing up in this era, already acknowledging the faults of this world at the max age of 6, when I was that age I was still playing with toys, it shows how fast they have to grow up now. When I found Klara Kristalova as my inspiration, I felt as if I found the perfect artist to help me convey this feeling. Looking at her work is when I fix my design and came up with the design of how my sculpture looks. Looking at the piece again, I want to later add shading to it with paint to emphasize some shapes of the hand, I feel as though there's still room for improvement, but I am proud of how it came out and how I was able to convey my message.
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?
Klara's pieces have lots of movement and sense of unity. Although somethings clearly look out of place, like in her piece Spring, 2006, as we see the vines coming out of the persons eyes, we can see that it still unifies as one. I wanted a similar feeling or "look", wanting everything to look united and full of texture.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Klara Kristalova's whole approach in art is to make art that can convey human emotions, with her own knowledge of myths and folklore tied into it.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I feel as though most people feel as though our world is being damaged by those living it it, us. Everyday there is something bad happening, its almost inevitable however you still cant help but feel sad and angry. I personally, used to live in a very nice neighborhood but overtime, it became dangerous where we couldn't even hang out in our front yard anymore.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea is nature and the things going on in the world. I feel as though everyday, something new is happening in the world, most of the time it being a bad thing. I'll be on my phone and then out of no where I get a notification from the news that something bad has happened. At this point you becomes accustomed to it, there's not much we can do but sit there and wait for something else to happen.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
To think outside the box. Come up with metaphor, meanings for everything you add onto your piece no matter how big or small it is.
Citations (MLA FORMAT)
“Klara Kristalova - Artist.” Perrotin, https://www.perrotin.com/artists/Klara_Kristalova/29#news.
https://gwallter.com/art/paul-nash.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Making_a_New_World
https://www.everypicture.org/we-are-making-a-new-world-by-paul-nash
https://www.fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org/en/expositions/paul-nash-sunflower-rises/