Sneak Peek

This weeks sneak peek is actually more of the process of my wire sculpture (which I finally finished!)  After all the cuts, scratches, and sore muscles from working with this type of metal... clay wins and the metal lathe loses this round.  I will say I am please with the finish piece and will probably forget the blood and frustrations and try the wire again, it just might be awhile.  I only have a few pictures of the progression of the piece.  It has been hard to get in a habit of photographing the process, but something I am working on.  

This figurative wire sculpture was inspired by my drawing and clay sculpture of "Eve" (2010).  Orginally, I was going to do a rendering of "Eve" in metal, but I began to struggle with proportions, and just in general with the material.  I choose the metal lathe versus chicken wire or hardware cloth because I was drawn to the surface area of it.  In retrospect, the chicken wire would have been more flexible to work with as well as handled better for me considering I was trying to handle the metal lathe like clay.  Logically, I understand metal does not handle the same as clay, but it was still the approach I used for this figurative sculpture.  

I worked on the thighs first with a loose pattern and created clean edges that I later took a thin wire and sewed up the seam of the metal lathe.  The body torso was created next with the same sewing approach, although I did not get as clean of lines as I did on the thighs.  I attached the thighs to the torso which was very difficult.  I used very thin tweezers to run the wire in and out for the attatchments.  I created the bottom part of the legs next and basically eye-balled the proportions.  The knees were formed separately as well and then were used to attach the two parts of the legs.  I feel that it became a pretty rough transition, and my approach will be a bit more calculated next time.  I formed the feet out of the leg wire and only had to add on to one of the legs to complete the foot form. 

The finish piece has the addition of fabric batting inside the torso with a ceramic model of "Eve" sitting ontop of it.  The project was to use the metal as the exterior and something soft, fragile, or breakable in the interior space.  With the use of the fabric batting I get the textural soft element and the ceramic model brings a breakable element, but together I feel it takes on a deeper emotional element of how people bury and protect their feelings and thoughts inside themselves.  This was an unexpected turn in the meaning of my piece that I discovered. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the behind the scenes look for this weeks sneak peek! Tune in next thursday to see what other surprises I have up my sleeves!

Adding the bottom half of the first leg

Almost finished! In the process of attatching the knee and getting it ready to be suspended!

Detail of the fabric batting and ceramic model inside the sculpture's torso