3-D Art and the problem of Five

Sphere, Cube, Pyramid (square based), Cylinder, Cone....

I felt confident this was an easy assignment and that I could breeze through it. With out a doubt in my mind, I went to the store and bought the premade forms for the "problem of five". I bought spray paint and felt and some foam core board to display it on.

At home, I created a homemade spray booth in my basement....OK, this is when the "problem" gets a little bit more complex than I had anticipated! ( you'd think I'd learn that nothing is as easy as it first appears to be...hhhmmmm) Did I mention that this was in "early spring" IE..winter?! In the basement?! Painting?! Not a real good idea, but necessary I thought...till I was done and found out that there is a vented spray booth at school.

My next learning experience was with my pre-made styrofoam forms...They don't like paint. Those cute styrofoam balls...they melt! Those wonderful green floral forms...they become powdery and the paints comes off easily. And heed my words, never put a whole in a form if you don't mean it!!!! There is no simple repair to fix it. After filling the whole and sanding it and repainting it, I noticed that there was a flat spot in my cone. The textures were not the same and of course I had already put it together and it was in a place I couldn't hide. Not even with a strategically placed jewel. Somehow I think making my own forms would have been easier...well maybe not! Maybe I should just remove the word easy from my art vocabulary!?!

Speaking of the jewels I felt they worked out pretty well even though they didn't want to stick to the rounder surface of the cone. I managed to fix that and was now pleased with the resulting 3-D art. At the end of the project I figured I had learned some things and had overcome some adversities, and had solved the problem presented to me. Kudos to me! LOL

3-D Art & Mushrooms

Once again, as with my rabbit, this mushroom started out to be something else. We were supposed to find an interesting container and make a plaster casting. It was, I believe, my instructor's desire that it would turn out to look like an ancient ruin or something. As always, I walked my own path on this one. While everyone was bringing plastic forms removed from products like hair driers, chocolates, even card board boxes and such, I decided I was going to bring in a huge oval plastic jug that used to hold pretzels.

As the other students were filling their various containers with sand, I was cutting the bottom out of my plastic jug. As they were making designs in the sand for their project, I was finally filling my upside down jug with sand. I thought I would make a cone shape down the middle of the sand, put plaster in and have a basic shape that I would carve designs in, paint it and it would be stunning replica of a ancient building. Hmmm, back to reality....O.K., did I mention I used a wine bottle to make the cone type shape in the sand? I managed to break that wine bottle while we were cleaning up.

I was told vermiculite added to the plaster would make it lighter, so I added some some all right! I thought I'd shake some in and of course I poured too much and my plaster started drying before I could even pour it in the sand mold! So...I started over, new plaster, NO vermiculite! I poured it in the mold I made and let it set for about 4 hours. I then cut the plastic jar away from the largest part of the plaster and pulled the mold out.

Well you should have seen the look on my face when I saw it....The term "FALLAC SYMBOL" acurately describes what I saw in front of me!!!! I later found out most of my classmates had the same reaction. I started trying to chisel it into something, anything else...unfortunately, my sculpting skills and the tools I had at my disposal were sadly lacking. :(((

Bless my fellow art students, they started trying to give me ideas. Lay it on it side, put eyes on it and make an elephant, turn it upside down and paint it like an ice cream cone, and so on. Us girls had a good laugh about what it looked like when we were away from the guys ( actually, we were giggling like a bunch of young girls).

I gave it a couple of days and thought about it and wham, out of nowhere I saw it perfectly, A MUSHROOM! All I had to do was figure out how to make the mold for the top. I bought two bowls, one large and one medium/small. I used the large bowl to make a depression in the sand then filled it with some plaster. Next, I put vaseline on the out side of the smaller bowl and pressed it into the fresh plaste to form the curved underside of my top. I let it set up, removed the smaller bowl and....WALAH!!.... it wasn't an ancient ruin but I had a mushroom I could live with, literally. In fact I will be making two more in varying sizes, sealing them and placing all three in my new front porch garden area!

3-D ART on all Levels

Well, the assignment was to create something using different levels. I am not sure that my design was what the instructor had in mind, but I enjoyed "solving this problem" (he termed each project a problem we needed to solve, it took me the better part of 2 semesters with him to fully understand what he meant by that terminology).



When I was finished drawing my design out, I started working on the various parts for my final product. I had never tried to create something from a drawing (especially not my own drawing) without instructions before (I now began to understand what he meant by "problem to solve" instead of "assignment", etc. ). I ended up using foam board, styrafoam blocks, tissue paper, pinstriping, cardboard tubing, spackle, paint, two sided tape, rubber cement, and hot glue. I spent hours spackling and sanding and painting and striping and taping and gluing and redoing! Boy, did I learn alot.


When finished, my work was put on display with the rest of the class's projects. I was, as I always am, amazed by the uniqueness of each person's design and how they went about "solving the problem" of creating levels in artwork.

3-D Art & Nuclear Rabbits....

Believe it or not this bunny started out to be a cute art piece, an armature and plaster concoction. It ended up just a tad different!


Since it was the first time trying out this particular art process, I was not too confident in my abilities. We all (my classmates & I) decided what animal each of us would create and began winding our wire armatures. We were required to cover the armature with cloth and plaster. Well that was not so easy. The cloth has to be tight and the plaster must be thin. Getting the cloth around the armature and slopping on the plaster turned into a real laughing matter.


I decided my rabbit went from a cute armature to a sad, sad plaster rabbit! He sure looked like he had a hard life. The more I worked with him the more he took on a "tortured soul" aura. I remembered how as kids we used to talk about how big and ravaged nuclear animals might be (part of the cold war thing) and... TAAHDAAH...suddenly I knew who he was. He was my "Nuclear Rabbit" created from long ago fears and present day reminders of those days.

Maybe someday we will all be blessed with PEACE ON EARTH and "Nuclear Rabbit" can REST IN PEACE.

3-D Art & Tie Fighters...

From my 3-D art class. It may not look like much to others, but my 7 year old grandson loved it so much he wanted to take it home. He loves Star Wars and said it reminded him of the Tie Fighter (Imperial Dogfighter). If it made him happy, then I am very happy! ;-D

A sad note...

I was saddened to hear that Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passed away. I watched some of Farrah's Story and I found it so heartbreaking. Since they both left this earth on my birthday, I feel they are somehow a part of my life cycle now. I am not sure exactly what that means or even why I feel that way, but as the saying goes "it is what it is" and I accept it.

On a lighter note, yesterday my hubby and I went to a Corvette car show on Saturday and oh boy , were there lots of pretty cars there, from the fist year (1953) to brand new. They were auctioning some off and due to the economy some people were getting bargains. It was a nice day for a ride, but just as we got home, a storm came up and wow it was a doozy. Then as quickly as it came, it was gone.

Sunday turned out to be even nicer than Saturday, so we took another drive to a town that was having an art show. It was so beautiful out that we rode with the windows down (which we rarely do anymore) and let the wind blow. The art show was in a park with photographers, painters, sculpters, and even a completely portable pottery set up where a man was sitting at a potter's wheel "throwing a pot"out of clay. He had a kiln of some sort, glazing materials, and examples of his beautiful pots, vases, and various art works. He was amazing to watch!

Well... it's late and my grandson is coming at 8:30 am to grandma sit, so I had better go to bed.

Once Again...

Well, once again I have become a year older...this seems to happen every year!! I guess I should be used to it by now!

Jim (my hubby) must be mellowing with age because he did something so nice for me. He put 5 humorus cards around the house before he went to work and I found them as I went about my day. I laughed so much and felt younger with each card. He can be such a thoughtful person when he puts his mind to it. My daughter and grandson stopped by with flowers, candy, and the book about Patrick Swazey's life story. (I am a big fan and sorry to see him and his family suffering so)My three grandchildren who live farther away from me called to tell me happy birthday and I really enjoyed that.

So all in all it was a wonderful day for me.