EXHIBITION TEXT
This project is a collaboration with UWM focusing on the exploration and reflection of oneself through the medium of cardboard. This piece focuses on self degradation and the negative labels placed on feminie traits. I explore the idea of how an individual neglects femininity to avoid the feeling of weakness and vulnerability. My piece is mainly inspired by James Grashow, who is known as a sculptor and a woodcut artist. More specifically I was inspired by his piece bouquet of architecture. All material to create this piece is cardboard from various forms that allow the incorporation of different textures and colors put together by hot glue.
INSPIRATION
Architecture bouquet, James Grashow, 2012
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My main inspiration for this piece was James Grashow and his bouquet of architecture. At first glance this piece appears to be a simple bouquet of flowers however when looking at the individual flowers one is able to identify the architectural implementations. I was inspired by his artwork and his connection of nature with man along with the symbolism he placed on it. When I was doing my research and came across the vibrant and detailed flowers I knew I wanted to incorporate some form of this in my own artwork and despite the change of ideas I still came to focus my aesthetic on flowers which all came to be developed by Jame Grashow's own artwork. I focused on the connection I personally hold with flowers and
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how I can relate it to my struggles and despite it being different from what James Grashow represent in his own artwork his conceptual and technical applications are what led me to develop my own ideas into their own.
PLANNING
The planning for the piece was a longer process than the actual piece’s process as I was confused on how to articulate my thoughts and being into a piece. I wasn't so sure on how I wanted to represent myself and my aspirations in the first place. My original idea was to create and become almost like a landscape, where I would present this idea of strength and weakness through nature and architecture since I am fond of both topics. However I found myself incorporating too many themes and too much was going on to the point I didn't know what I wanted to do anymore and I began to lose track of the main/original message. Due to this I decided to start over with the planning again and after consulting with peers and teachers I began to develop a more concrete idea which led me to develop the final piece. I wanted to become a flower to represent myself and my goals. This idea began to develop more through my research but I knew I wanted to keep the “weak and strong” idea incorporated.
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To further develop the idea in order to carry out a process I began to develop a sketch as to how this would be placed on my body. I wanted my head to be completely covered by the actual flower and then my arms would serve as branches for the stem with my wrist covered as leaves. I also wanted my entire body to be covered by torns to furter naturalize myself and symbolize the strong aspect of a fragile flower. I also wanted to include roots in my feet to show that organic form of a flower.
My biggest concern was how I would create the headgear, I wasn't so sure about how it would be structured, I developed this idea of constructing a circular helmet where I would have enough space inside to comfortably move, I would then cover this circular helmet with petals to form the flower, and cover my neck with leaves to become more organic. |
PROCESS
WRIST PIECES
I first developed a “skeleton” of my wearables. I began to create the wrist pieces to do so I just grabbed two strands of cardboard and measured them to the point it would be big enough to fit in my hand but not small enough where i couldn't fit through it. I measured these strands and cut them to then glue them together. I then grabbed larger pieces of cardboard and drew the outline of a leaf to then just attach both these pieces together with a hot glue gun creating my arm pieces. I wanted to become a single flower which incorporates each aspect of the flower within me, to further connect with James technical incorporation of the flower.
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HEAD PIECE
I wasn't so sure of how to approach the head piece at first, it was one of the most intimidating but interesting parts of the project to create. I really had no idea what I was doing so I decided to just start by creating a cardboard ring that wrapped around my head since I knew this would have to be tight fitting on my head. I wasn't sure of how to create that organic circular shape around my head to almost make a helmet so i just grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrapped it around the cardboard ring to create a cylinder helmet that would cover my head entirely. I didn't close the piece completely as i wanted to have a gap where I would be able to look through,
I then began to create the petals of the flower. I begun with the middle of the flower which i created by grabbing a large rectangular cardboard piece and then rolling it into one cylindrical form which gave the effect of overlapping petals. I connected this to my headgear by applying a piece of cardboard between both ends of the top of my helmet and then placing this cylindrical piece on top of it. To continue the flower I just followed the basic structure of a rose which would be to overlap petals until full. I wanted to create a very detailed flower like James did with his own piece by individually adding petal by petal and applying some curve and unique shape to them. I began to do this on top of the helmet until I got to the outer-parts of the helmet where I would allow the petals to become less rigid and more flowy. I basically continued this process until I was done with a pretty full rose. |
COLORING
James Grashow uses colored cardboard which allows his piece to look very clean and realistic however I wanted to incorporate some form of sloppiness and organic behaviors of nature by having a form of collage made by colored cardboard. I wanted to incorporate color in my piece but I didn't want to cut out my petals/leaves with the original colored cardboard already due to both the fact that it would be harder to find larger pieces and it would just look better if I found another way. Instead I wanted to almost like paint my piece by cutting out smaller pieces of cardboard and glue them together to create a geometric pattern within the piece. I took various forms of cardboard of the color green and red and applied it throughout my piece until full.
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THORNS
I wanted the thorns to be coming out of me seamlessly but without the advantage of being able to apply glue onto my clothes i decided to create almost like a necklace where i would wrap a piece of cardboard around my neck and then have strings of cardboard cine down there to lay around my body. I applied pointy small pieces of cardboard along the strings of cardboard and then cut out holes in my shirt to allow these to come out and show like thorns .
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EXPERIMENTATION
Another big thing I was able to experiment with as well was the space between the colored cardboard in my piece. The leaves attached to my arms were completely covered with no fear of running out of cardboard because they were smaller objects, however with the rose I was afraid I would run out and it would take significantly longer to fill out the petals entirely so I had to adjust the spacing between the colored cardboard in my piece.
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through this process I got to experiment with the medium of cardboard. One of the first things I got to experiment was the bending capacity of the cardboard. its a pretty bendable material when done right but its a lot harder to manipulate than other mediums. However due to this it created a very geometric look to my piece as seen mostly in my rose petals which I really liked.
As I began to overlap the petals for my flower I noticed it was harder to place the petals in a given place the further I went away from the middle of the flower due to the awkward form of cardboard. One of the things I did in order to keep the pieces in place was to apply a tinier piece of cardboard between one petal from the other so it had a stronger reassurance and wouldn't just fall off. |
CRITIQUE
SIMILARITIES
The biggest similarity between both pieces is obviously at first glance the connection between flowers and humans. James Grashow focuses on creating a bouquet of flowers to symbolize the relationship between man and nature in my piece I use the symbolism of flowers to represent the connection between femininity and nature. Technique wise they are both luminous pieces filled with color made out of cardboard. The biggest similarities overall between my piece and my inspiration is the general concept and the general aesthetic of the piece. Despite the surface of both pieces appearing related/ connected they represent different specific ideas within similar areas of interest.
DIFFERENCES
the biggest difference conceptually between my piece and Jame's is the focus on femininity and self hatred. James Grashow focuses on a more positive aspect of nature and man kind whereas I include a more negative outlook and connection between the two while still incorporating a positive connection. His piece is a bouquet presented to the viewer alone whereas my piece is a wearable and I am becoming the piece. His artwork is also a lot more detailed and clean. My piece focuses on one single item with simple aspects that are designed in a more tacky way as the patterns imply. He also uses this piece to connect two ideas and presents those ideas clearly in the piece those being architecture and flowers my piece also focuses on a form of connection however its not implied as obvious as Jame's work is. James Grashow also utilizes more pastel colors with a solid base where as I used different shades of a more bold color and with lettering/designs interfering within the pattern. I also include thorns in my piece whereas James does not include that part of the flowers within his own piece for my own piece this serves as an important conceptual and technical aspect of my piece thus becoming a very big difference between both our pieces.
REFLECTION
After completing the project I was able to come to a better understanding with who i am and what my ideas are and how i could present that artistically. Overall i enjoyed the process of completing this project it was a new medium to work with so I learned a couple of things along the way. I would work with this medium again as a form of sculpture again. I came along troubles and one of the biggest issues I had was being able to fit through things and take them off. I found it hard to manipulate cardboard in a way where i would be comfortable in because its hard to form it in a way where i could just simply attach and de-attach. however there could be a possible way to do that which i would like to have explored more.
i also ran out of red cardboard so I couldn't apply it throughout the entire flower and although i do like the way it ended up because it creates two different views of the top and outer look, my original idea was to cover it entirely. another big thing i wish could have been different was the lack of thorns around my body. I only applied it to the front of my upper body but i do wish i could have given myself the time to apply throughout the entire layer of my body.
My original idea also involved creating roots in my feet however that was emitted due to the fact that it would be hard to walk around and i needed to walk around comfortably with my piece on. I liked how the geometric pattern looks on the piece which i plan to incorporate in other of my pieces as well. overall I am happy with the process and I have learned different techniques that one can apply not only to cardboard but other mediums as well.
i also ran out of red cardboard so I couldn't apply it throughout the entire flower and although i do like the way it ended up because it creates two different views of the top and outer look, my original idea was to cover it entirely. another big thing i wish could have been different was the lack of thorns around my body. I only applied it to the front of my upper body but i do wish i could have given myself the time to apply throughout the entire layer of my body.
My original idea also involved creating roots in my feet however that was emitted due to the fact that it would be hard to walk around and i needed to walk around comfortably with my piece on. I liked how the geometric pattern looks on the piece which i plan to incorporate in other of my pieces as well. overall I am happy with the process and I have learned different techniques that one can apply not only to cardboard but other mediums as well.
ACT QUESTIONS
1)Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
the cause-effect relationships between my inspiration James Grashow and my artwork is visible through the focus on nature and flowers. I came to be inspired by James' bouquet of flowers and the delicate detail along with what it symbolized for him and his audience which I then evolved into my own interpretation and created a piece that represented the symbolism behind a flower for me and the relationship between nature and myself.
2)what is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration
James Grashow mainly focuses on paper as a medium to create very complicated and detailed pieces his themes usually focus on man, nature and mortality. He doesn't focus on themes relating to self degradation and femininity like I did on my piece so its hard to say what his specific point of view is however I would assume that due to his passion toward nature and the connection to mankind he seems to be intrigued by artwork that forms this connection between humans and nature.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration.
I have been able to discover how simplicity can allow an artwork to become more complex. As I previously researched different forms of art and explored my peers work, specially through this project I have noticed that when a project is focused on a single idea it can benefit conceptually and technically a lot more than a piece focused on various ideas which I began to understand not only thorough the research but through my planning as well.
4)What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
the central idea around my inspirational research for this piece was to represent a form fo weakness and strength as that is what I felt I more wanted to convey in my piece.
5)What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
A big conclusion that I came while reading my research was that there's a strong relation between humans and nature and there's a lot of ways to visually represent that idea, along with many interpretations of how this relationship affects what we know.
the cause-effect relationships between my inspiration James Grashow and my artwork is visible through the focus on nature and flowers. I came to be inspired by James' bouquet of flowers and the delicate detail along with what it symbolized for him and his audience which I then evolved into my own interpretation and created a piece that represented the symbolism behind a flower for me and the relationship between nature and myself.
2)what is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration
James Grashow mainly focuses on paper as a medium to create very complicated and detailed pieces his themes usually focus on man, nature and mortality. He doesn't focus on themes relating to self degradation and femininity like I did on my piece so its hard to say what his specific point of view is however I would assume that due to his passion toward nature and the connection to mankind he seems to be intrigued by artwork that forms this connection between humans and nature.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration.
I have been able to discover how simplicity can allow an artwork to become more complex. As I previously researched different forms of art and explored my peers work, specially through this project I have noticed that when a project is focused on a single idea it can benefit conceptually and technically a lot more than a piece focused on various ideas which I began to understand not only thorough the research but through my planning as well.
4)What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
the central idea around my inspirational research for this piece was to represent a form fo weakness and strength as that is what I felt I more wanted to convey in my piece.
5)What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
A big conclusion that I came while reading my research was that there's a strong relation between humans and nature and there's a lot of ways to visually represent that idea, along with many interpretations of how this relationship affects what we know.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- “Architecture Bouquets by James Grashow.” Designboom, 21 Mar. 2012, https://www.designboom.com/art/architecture-bouquets-by-james-grashow/.
- Beautiful Architectural Flowers by James ... - Artpeople.net. https://artpeople.net/2016/11/beautiful-architectural-flowers-james-grashow/.