If you have been following my blog, you can see that I have an unnatural attraction to TED.com.
David Gallo: World of Bioluminescence and Pattern
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_gallo_shows_underwater_astonishments.html
Artistic point of view is amazing. Some colors are designed to hypnotize, use lovely patterns to entice, attract, or protect. Cuttlefish can change the patterns of their skin when engaging males or females and to camouflage. The pattern solely depends on the situation at hand. As an artist – like these bioluminescent creatures I have a natural attraction to hypnotize and entice viewers through my work.
Edith Widder: Glowing Life in an Underwater World
http://www.ted.com/talks/edith_widder_glowing_life_in_an_underwater_world.html
Spectacular chains of Siphonphorae that push so much light can see inside the suit. In land it’s rare to see animals who create light. Big explosions of sparks are from comb jellies. Some animals swim through Bioluminescent areas and attract the creature lights onto their skin and they become a living light show that spread Bioluminescence along the surface. These living lights are not just in deep sea, but on the surface too.
What I Did:
Saturday: (2 hours) Cut and scored leaf forms with some sketching.
Sunday: (6 hours) Started assembling the branch form. Gathered different types of paper like Tyvek, Acid-free tissue, and Japanese Lace to try them out.
Monday: (4 hours) Finished the branch form. Met with Lauren Koreny to talk about paper medium specifically.
Tuesday: (3 hours) Re-touched the branch. Started to make small drafts of leaves and other organic forms in order to create huge versions of themselves.
Wednesday: (2 hours) Met with Matt Shlian to critique my work and get advice on my IP Project.
Thursday: (4 hours) A little research on Deep Sea and Bioluminescence. Tried my hand at making larger organic forms by drafting smaller forms than switching to ones on a large scale. Also tried some quilling. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilling)
Process:
I’m not sure what to think of my process to be honest. I feel I work hard, but I have little to show for it. I’ve expressed my concern to a few people, but many assure me that I’m on the right track. I am doing a good variety of experiments and after creating the branch in my studio I feel that I have something “nicer” to show for my experimental phase. I’m hopeful that my next iteration is going to come out quite nicely.
What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:
Right now, I’m starting to actually make forms that come together! Instead of individual pieces I am placing them on display that connects them as a solid piece. I do not want to make multiples of organic forms (Such as leaves) and only make a shape out of them together. Last week I let myself be inspired by the forms I make and allowing my creative nature to take it’s course. When I let myself do that, good things emerged this week!
The next step in my thought process has been thinking of methods of how to “brand” my work. What I mean by branding is picking a natural phoenoma I find fansinating and something that will peak my interest for the next year. I made a simple tree branch form with wet fold and some glue to bind the paper edges together. The leaves were simple shapes that were scored using my x-ato knife. I wanted to see where this practice would take place and see where my skills would lead me. Over the last few weeks I have been hearing from people that my work resembles undersea creatures. This has become my default style over whenever I do not create flora and fauna literally. Whenever I am given a chance to express myself the forms I create represent these mysterious “alien” like creatures. I find myself drawn to subjects where little is known about them. I often want to know more and I develop an emotional connection to what little is known and try to make my own discoveries for what is around. This isn’t just to deep sea, but to the frozen north of Newfoundland, Alaska, and Siberia. They house huge amounts of land untouched and unseen by many – and I’m naturally drawn to what is there, even if they have nothing. The people that live in Siberia, the Reindeer people, have a specific way of adapting and their adaption is this connection to the Reindeer that reside there.
What have been running through my mind lately is a concept of living light called Bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is a light produced by a living organism. Organisms that usually emit natural light are marine vertebrates and invertebrates in deep sea such as siphonophorae, jellies, and squids. Other examples are microorganisms and terrestrial fauna – like firefly, glow worms, mushrooms, and foxfire fungi.
Iridescence is generally known as the property of certain surfaces that appear to change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Iridescence is commonly seen in items such as soap bubbles, butterfly wings, and sea shells.
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation of a different wavelength.
Phosphorescence is a specific type of photoluminescence related to fluorescence. Unlike fluorescence, a phosphorescent material does not immediately re-emit the radiation it absorbs.
Ninety percent of deep-sea marine life are estimated to produce bioluminescence in one form or another. Most marine light-emission belongs in the blue and green light spectrum, the wavelengths that can transmit through the seawater most easily. In a color spectrum, red is the very first color wavelength that disappears with orange and yellow following just after so to see in the great sea many creatures use blue and green lights. However, certain loose-jawed fishes emit red and infrared light to disguise themselves from predators or prey rather than use bright colors that are visible at deep depths. Bioluminescence is used for attract prey or mates with a light that is visible in deep sea or counter camouflage from predators (Red is a light that can camouflage and can counter red itself from the inside of a creature). Living light can be used also for communication to other creatures too. The organ that is responsible for the emission of bioluminescence is known as photophores. This type is only present in squid and fish, and is used to illuminate their ventral surfaces, which disguise their silhouettes from predators.
I’ve looked at some things in regards to the subject of bioengineered Bioluminescence. Some groups want to create trees that glow in order to make organic streetlights completely off the grid or crops that glow when they need more water. There is even research toward creating Bioluminescent pets that glow naturally. And then I learned about Biological pigments in creatures – this isn’t really related to Bioluminescence, but it is of a similar field in how plants and animals develop their natural color. Biological pigments, also known simply as pigments or biochromes are substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption. Biological pigments include plant pigments and flower pigments.
It’s interesting to me because some colors are much more rare than others – Red is a color that will never be seen at the deep depths, but blue on terrestrial environments will be one of the rarest forms of natural colors found. It’s weird too, because marine flora and coral have a wider spectrum of color compared to their terrestrial friends on land. Why is that? How has color influenced the natural worlds?
We are attracted to light because we are surrounded by natural light – the sun, the moon, the stars, fire, snow reflecting light, icicle reflections, water reflections. Some natural lights are specific in location like the Northern Lights and the Blue ocean glow caused by Noctiluca organisms. We have laser light shows, fireworks, Christmas lights, bonfires, glowsticks, and other items used to celebrate the natural draw of light in our lives.
Why are we attracted to light?
From Lightingever.com
http://www.lightingever.com/kbase/learninglighting/why-human-are-attracted-to-light.html
“In order to appreciate the effectiveness of using light to attract people and guide their experience, it is helpful to investigate why humans may have developed this type of response. On a very basic level, it is about vision. The human visual system is very finely tuned for translating light in the environment. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. It is safe to say that seeing is one of the fastest ways to learn about the world around us. It is because of this dependency that our brains are always encouraging us to pursue areas that have more visual information, that is, lighted areas. The brain believes that the more we see, the better our experience in life will be. No doubt, there is also the residual belief that more we can see, the more likely we are to find food, shelter, companionship, and the less likely we are to be eaten by predators.
When we investigate all of these emotional and behavioral effects that are unique to light, we see that there is much more to light than just sufficient quantity. In the realm of architecture and design, we can do much more than simply add light to a space so that people can function and perform visual tasks. Throughout this text, the knowledge that we will be exploring is based on making decisions about what we want light to do in a space.”
What I think I should do next:
I’m making another branch form – I really want to try my hand again at this process with new techniques. I would also like to try hanging the branch this time just to see what happens. I am also going to build bigger forms like leaves and spheres to try my hand at lighting them with LEDs.
What to seek with my Grant Proposal -- What will benefit me the most?
Making something for the All-Student Exhibition! -- Using techniques I've learned and applying it to a serious iteration as a "sketch" of my IP.
More sketching of the actual installation!
What I Did:
Sunday: (3 hours) Looked at natural forms, like kelp, fruits, and flora and sketched forms.
Monday: (4 hours) Looked more artists to study their techniques. Also made some basic wire armatures for folded paper forms.
Tuesday: (2 hours) Sketched more forms and finished wire armatures.
Wednesday: (1 hour) Gathered more materials.
Thursday: (6 hours) Made paper leaf and flora forms. Finished wire armature experiment with transparent paper and light.
Process:
I did not get as much done as I hoped to this week. Not having my studio nearby was difficult because when I went home I forgot to bring a few things. I did get what needed to be done at least. Once I came back it was easy to get right into my work since I had a game plan developed over break. On Thursday I grew frustrated because my experiment with the wire armature with paper didn’t turn out how I wanted – I assume this because I didn’t have the right kind of paper. Next time I do this, I’ll obtain several types of paper so this doesn’t happen again.
What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:
This week I went back to sketching more forms since, quite literally, I went back to the drawing board with my material usage and thought about how I was going to use paper outside of paper pulp sculpture. There is a chance I still will use it, but I will not place a high emphasis on it now. I made a blog post with a list of artists I looked into this week. I had bits and pieces of frustration though because I tried to mimic some of the artists’ techniques and many of my experiments didn’t quite work out. I’ve also been frustrated because I feel like I’ve gone backwards in my progress because I was hoping to be toward the end of my experimentation phase by now. I know I’m capable of great things, but until I find my paper engineering niche it feels like a giant struggle for me. Every paper sculptor has a signature and everyone is different in how they view paper as a medium.
Elsa Mora's paper sculpture is through a series of papercutting, scoring, and light folding. The natural bends she instills into her work is a light accent of 3D forms. She does not place much emphasis on gaining the 3D aspect, but the entire idea is to make the viewer believe it's not flat because of her clever use of shadow. Her paper cut is delicate and skilled insicions -- a type of realism I want to achieve.
Kirsten Hassenfeld is probably one of my biggest inspirations this week. She makes simple multiples of geometric forms (cameos, diamonds, and costume jewelry) and uses light to create this beautiful, natural glow. Some of the light sources are just lighting from the window behind it and others are tiny LED lights embedded in her installations. I tried to mimic her technique this week, but it didn't quite work out because I figured out I had the wrong type of paper. I placed my pieces against the window for natural lighting, but it wasn't as brilliant as I was hoping. Probably because of the paper.
Lauren Clay creates omnious colorful forms with strips of paper. Her sense of color is amazing and very textural -- the color is arranged by value scale of each color.
"She weaves a poetic web of countless contradictions. Finding the macrocosm in the microcosmic, Clay takes the humblest and most ephemeral of sculptural materials to create shimmering, towering monuments that embody ideals of the infinite."
I often wonder what my natural ability is in paper if I were to make a massive installation. I like the idea of creating flora with folded and scored paper, but it’s hard for me to visualize my work as a mass until I settle upon a folding technique that defines who I am. Sometimes when I am creating my pieces are too abstract and simple – it’s a concept that is hard to wrap my mind around because I am attracted to detail and technical processes. In a way, this mindset I have forged for myself has encouraged me to venue deep into paper sculpture unlike what most have ever seen before. I like my work to be as realistic as possible, but with a lot of paper folders and their definition of reality is that you cannot actually mimic real life, but depict your version of what is real. Crude complexities of a figure is defined by how many steps it takes to make a recognizable piece by people. What are the limits of paper? What are the physical and emotional limits one has when working with paper? This week I was primarily struggling mental blocks I have created when I visual a flower and debate how to make it. When I finish making the flower – I sit in frustration because it is not at the level of detail I want it to be. It was too simple for my taste. In a way, it’s good that I want to push myself to achieve a higher level, but at the same time I often stew in frustration. I hold this superficial belief that simple forms cannot be beautiful, which I know isn’t true, but simple forms do not define my work. I hold my finished piece to observe and critique changes I want to make. I have to start over and try a different technique/texture like the petals or leaves to get a physical contrast between my first iteration and my second. I cannot assume that one will look better – I know I have to make another iteration just because it is a part of the paper sculpting process. There is a lot of failure, but I know while I create all these experiments I’m learning techniques that might flatter forms in the near future. Wet folding makes beautiful leaves, paper pulp makes realistic animals, scored paper makes sensational patterns. There is a lot to compare and contrast. What I am trying to achieve through my paper techniques is to push myself to avoid mental blocks of how far I can take a piece of paper and transform it into a complex form.
What I think I should do next:
I need to finish these leave forms and finish the branch armature I made for my hanging forms.
Next week Lauren K. and I are visiting Matt Shlian for additional help. She and I will also have a paper folding session to bounce ideas and inspiration off each other. From Matt Shlian’s Paper Sculpture course last Winter we have learned Paper engineers are a community of people who work better together. We build off each other!
"Each piece is frosted with dripping swags, chains, honeycomb beads, and gem-like crystal. Closer inspection reveals pictorial vignettes: a branch holding a tiny swing, a girl with curly hair twirling in her antebellum gown, a woman and a lacey pony in a miniature gazebo, and a pendant featuring Bacchus raising his cup of wine. Lit from within, the installation glows with an ethereal light, creating an otherworldly environment in keeping with the installation title: a French idiom referring to daydreaming that can be translated as "head in the clouds." "
What I Did:
Saturday: (4 hours) Took a class on paper making supported by Hollanders at Out of Hands Papermaking Studio. Experimented with textures and application of color to the pulp.
Sunday: (5 hours) Touched up the relief sculpture and finished blocking 3D form of Chameleon. Finished mold of relief sculpture and set to dry for the evening.
Monday: (2 hours) Mixed together pulp and cotton linter to make a successful casting of paper pulp!
Tuesday: (5 hours) Started on tree armatures to experiment and think about combining two styles of paper sculpture I enjoy. One tree is a clay sculpture to be casted into a mold (360 degree 3D form) and one tree will be made of only strips of wet and dry paper.
Wednesday: (2 hours) Started folding wet strips of paper on one armature to figure out technique.
Thursday: (5 hours) Started blocking clay on wire armature and continued to dissect the process of wet-folding. Played with quilling techniques inspired by Yulia Brodskaya’s papergraphics. Sketched some fictional organic forms like fruit and leaves.
Process:
Compared to last week I managed to top myself in productivity. I’m incredibly pleased with my efforts towards IP. Before I get ahead of myself I don’t want to move too fast though – because I want to set aside time on the final installation on top of my experimentation phase – but these last too weeks I have felt a wave of nostalgia about my project. I'm getting better at not wasting time because I love my work as a paper crafter/sculptor/engineer/maker too much to!
What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:
To start, I thought I would share this TED video with speaker Robert Lang, who discusses the evolution of origami from paper cranes, toys, cootie catchers and has become an art form using math, engineering and a lot of thought. http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html
My project definitely is evolving every week – and I’m becoming a lot more excited with its process. The final piece will require a lot of time and commitment, but in many ways I feel I am fortunate enough to be excited and aware of my project’s work load this early in the year. On Tuesday I had been trying to move forward on my pulp sculptures by making oil clay sculptures and wet-fold sculptures, but I was at a stand still as to how to combine the two processes together due to no consistency on how each form presents itself through physical aesthetics and touch (Pulp is soft to the touch and a little fuzzy. Wet-fold is still the original paper shape and has a smooth and slick surface).
On Thursday I started the morning working on the tree armatures. After talking to Hannah today, an idea was proposed that I should create an experience or a place sharing how I view the world with others so they may have the same nostalgia I feel for natural hidden places. Instead of following through with the relief paper pulp sculpture – I can make this piece a lot more meaningful and a way to connect with the audience by having my project interact with them. I’m falling in love with the whimsicality of the “papercraft” movement where artists and designers engineer paper together to fashion every day objects or illustrative shapes into comical beings. These whimsical pieces are beings of another world, specifically a paper world where everything is cleverly crafted and funny! I looked at my tree armatures and no longer are they an experiment of what I was going to do, but now an afterthought of my former IP idea.
During the break I went for a run from my house on E. Kingsley to the Art school to reset my mind on my project. As I left my house, outside the Kerrytown neighborhood I began to see the world in a new light. I found hidden spaces under the bridge on Glen Ave and began to think of my IP Project and the possibilities I can explore with it. Near the end of my run I noticed places that I wanted to explore on campus off the road (Such as the woods behind Fuller Park). I found a Willow tree (Along the side of Bonisteel Rd) and sat under it to sketch as an inspirational source for my installation. Every day I past this place for the last 3 ½ years, but have yet to notice this willow tree until today. The way the leaves swooped down and gathered made a “secret” space. This provoked some thought I had about how to maximize the power of paper as my medium. Instead of focusing on literal forms of animals and plants, I want to extract the textures, shapes, patterns, and entities of animals and plants and combine them into a unique space. This would show a connection with mankind and the natural world surrounding us. . It will be a tribute dedicated to biodiversity as a creative and artistic display of flora and fauna that come together as one.
What I think I should do next:
For the rest of the semester I made a schedule where I will be finishing my “experimentation” process – I’m going to finish my Wet-Fold/Mold Trees and make geometric shapes using transparent paper and lighting them with natural and LED light. I would also like to try a multiples experiment and make strings of a common shape and hang it along my window.
My IP will be similar to a natural process – I will design a few fiction and non fictional species of plants and animals few have heard of and sculpt them in paper. I plan to study systems, physical characteristics, adaptations, etc. and I will begin to gain an understanding of how flora and fauna function together as a physical being in the world. When I study and illustrate specimens I spend enough time observing and getting to know them. I begin to form a relationship with them and from there they develop a personality. The reason I want to pursue this subject of nature is because I want to establish a lost connection with mankind and the natural world. On paper I unfold their story and they begin to come to life. Paper is a beautiful medium – its delicate, eloquent and welds many possibilities as a blank canvas. I use paper to draw beautiful illustrations and now I want to take the next step and bring my drawings to life combining 2D with 3D forms. To accomplish this goal, I will be using paper to sculpt a large installation with a combination of paper pulp casting for 3D and wet-fold origami for 2D and some 3D forms.
The soft pulp texture can influence a sense of delicacy and fragility among my creatures and maintain individuality through a unique yet familiar medium everyone recognizes. Texture and detail are acknowledged only by a skilled and careful hand that spend their life getting to know them. Some paper pieces will be handcrafted by traditional wet-fold, cut and glue, specifically thin leaves or stems of the flora. The cast paper is composed of shredded recycled paper, Cotton liners, Calcium Carbonate, and water. The fibers of the cotton is to intertwine with the paper fibers while the Calcium Carbonate is to help harden the pulp to make it last much longer. The pulp is applied to a latex mold, casted from clay animal sculptures I create, and let it air dry before sliding them out. Paper is a relatively cheap material where I can find scavenge the recycling bins for, while Calcium Carbonate I can obtain at a Health food store and Cotton liners require me to order for a relatively cheap price. The expensive portion of the process is the molds. The larger detailed pieces will be casted from a rubber mold while everything else pieces will be cast in plaster molds. If I managed to have my paper origin from recycling bins mixed with cheap cotton linter, then I can easily afford this project, but I plan on applying for grants and funding from the Society of Art Students group.
The final piece will be a large mural-like installation displayed on a large gallery wall or even in a museum with dim lighting to emphasize the contrast of the white paper pulp. It will be dedicated to the celebration of biodiversity in the animal and plant kingdoms. It will be a creative and artistic display of flora and fauna many people of the world have never heard before. Paper is a beautiful medium – it is delicate, eloquent and welds many possibilities as a blank canvas. As a cheap and easily assessable receptacle for sharing thoughts and ideas, paper is a medium where ideas ascent because it begins as nothing, but in my hands it becomes something.
Fine Art Paper caster, Allen’s use of paper should not be confused with Paper Mache sculptures. He casts paper pulp into molds, very similar to Bronze or Slip casting methods. His technique produces beautiful pieces of work – they are delicate and incredibly realistic in detail. The texture is inviting and at a level I would like to mimic in my paper sculpture studies.
2. Kevin Dyer, Paper Pulp Artist
4. Jen Stark, Paper Sculptor
Though she doesn’t look like it, Jen Stark is a natural artist – her patterns and textures follow patterns found in nature. Examples like the Fibonacci Sequence as the flower petals. The color palette she uses is naturally alluring, similar to the strategy plants formulate in order to attract pollinators and people to interact with them so their seeds will spread.
A rare breed of artist – combines her love of graphic design and Typography with illustration expressed through sculpture. Her papergraphics are a marriage of her decorative illustration and the spontaneous rise of papercraft. Her technique is called paper quilling and it is something I’m very curious to incorporate into my installation in terms of detailing the flora. It makes me wonder too … should I even dare to think about text in my installation?
7. Brian Chan, Paper Sculptor Also an origami wet-folder, but the difference between him and Eric Joisel is that he tends to incorporate various colored paper into his pieces. This goes back to my theory of adding color in my paper sculpture.
Don’t be fooled, take a second look at his work and then realize that he makes his sculptures with wood and not paper. He is a folk artist who works with a combination of festive Chinese and Mexican mythology painting as layered woodcuts. Wood can easily become paper – it has the same texture qualities that cut paper has and has the same allure of drawing people in. AJ solves the issue of merging 2D and 3D as one glorious form a major part of what I plan on doing with my paper installation.
9. Anna-wili Highfield, Torn Paper Sculptor Uses torn white and painted paper then sews the pieces together for a soft and delicate look. I started using torn forms for my wet-folded leaves for individuality. Her painted paper pieces take on an unpredictable, yet organic appearance. It is another factor I’m considering for individual pieces like leaves or petals.
Uses wire armature to build the body of her creatures and then wets translucent paper to be pasted over the wire form. She makes me consider the use of light and shadows with my installation, possibly to be used with the final display at the Senior Show in April – I will probably experiment with this idea once I have a few completed pieces and see how much light shines through my pulp casts.
11. A 2D paper artist who uses sheets of paper, similar to Peter Callesan’s work, but instead uses an engraving technique to acquire the fine details of fur, hair, nails, and more. These paper pieces sit flat on a matte board like illustrations, but upon closer inspection the details can reach out and tickle your nose when your face is just inches away. I’m trying to consider how to deal with hair, scales, shells, and fur on animals – it will be a challenge to develop this technique on my own sculpted pieces.
12. Dana Major Kanovitz, Paper Pulp Artist She has a select few pieces that are actually paper pulp, but the ones she has made are amazing in scale and skill. She makes life size sculptures using Bronze casting methods. She adds human hair and animal fur and paints on the pulp with oil paints to really bring her paper casts to life, almost to the point where they are creepy. How she applies color to paper seems to be the most natural application compared to Kevin Dyer’s shiny gems. As realistic as her paint job is though, some paper artists like Allen Eckman have done a good job making their pulp sculptures look as they are about to breathe without the use of color.
12. Charles Clary, Paper Installation His forms look biological and interesting on a multiple scale. He looks as if he quilled the paper like Yulia Brodskaya, but instead cut and layered paper to give a sense of depth and scale. His work veers towards horizontal quilling compared to Yulia’s verticle quills. Charles Clary’s work is another way to think about displaying texture from a 2D perspective.
