Materials

Look through the sculptures found on this website. Stop when you are looking at the aero mint candy bar. (It's not a sculpture, just yummy candy.) Notice what materials they are made from. Please answer these questions in paragraph form, not question and answer when you've looked through the sculptures.

Do you think the material enhances the sculptures or distracts from the sculptures? Why?
Are some materials better for making the sculptures than others?
Which sculpture from the group do you think is the most successful? Why?

Lastly, describe a sculpture to me that you could make from ANY material you have access to. What material would you use? Why?
With what materials would you put the sculpture together? How?

Imagine

Imagine you are in the gallery, looking at these sculptures by artist Ron Mueck and answer the following questions. Please answer in paragraph form, not question and answer. Remember this is just your opinion so there is no wrong answer!

How do they make you feel? Why do they make you feel that way? If they were life sized how would they make you feel? Smaller than life size? Why?
What message do you think the artist was trying to convey with these sculptures?

The power of Art

Imagine you have the power to create a sculpture so powerful that when people see it, it changes the world. How do you want to change the world-(Bring peace to all? Bring total chaos and destruction? Make all people become vegetarians? Make everyone can understand every language in the world...)? What would your sculpture look like? How big would it be? What materials would it be made of? Where would you put it? How would you get everyone in the world to look at it?
Put some real thought into answering these questions and write in paragraph form. Be as descriptive as possible. I want to be able to SEE your sculpture!

(above sculpture called: Non-Violence, by Carl Fredrik Reutersward. Photo found here:http://artistsunite-ny.org/blog/?m=200610&paged=2)

Hooray for Clay!

We are starting our clay unit! Hooray! Read this short article about clay and its uses. Write one thing you didn't know before, one thing you already knew and write one thing you'd like to learn more about. (that's 3 different answers!)

What do you think?

Louise Bourgeois born December 25th, 1911, is a sculptor and artist. She is perhaps most famous for her monumental spider sculptures. The sculpture you see is titled, "Maman" and stands outside of the Tate Museum in London. She says spiders symbolize her mother. It is made of stainless steel and marble. Did you know that there is a bronze cast of this sculpture in the Samsung Museum of Art right here in Seoul?


Read her quote about the sculpture you see in the picture:

Bourgeois says “The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother. “
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Louise_Bourgeois_Maman.html

Without reading the quote above, would you have thought the sculpture was an ode to her mother? Why or why not?

If you could create a monumental, (huge), sculpture in homage to your mother what shape would it take on? Explain.

What materials would you use? Why?

Papier Mache!

Hello Everyone! You are almost ready to get dirty with papier mache! Hooray! Watch this video to prepare you for what is to come next.

NOW for the blog part!

Pretend your best friend is going to be making a papier mache sculpture. Write helpful hints you discovered from working on this project so far, NOT THE VIDEO. Your hints can be anything from making the armature (skeleton), to fleshing out and adding volume to the armature, to smoothing down the sculpture and filling in "holes." You can also write about things you were doing wrong and how you learned to correct them.

Iris N.

Artwork by Iris N.