The goal of Project 2 was to create a wearable object connected to one specific community of our choice. My initial inspiration was Cubism in the early 20th century. Cubism was an avant garde art movement that revolutionized European paintings and sculptures. I’ve always had a passion for structured and architectural designs  so for my wearable piece I combined the both. I first started by creating my mood board. I collected images of shapes and patterns that inspired me. I then sketched out the type of design I wanted my piece to have and created quick mock ups out of paper and cardboard on the mannequin as well as on Illustrator. Once I had a good idea of where and how many triangles I would need I started to think of which material would work best. I knew I wanted something I had never worked with, I thought of plexiglass but it would have been too heavy on the body so i decided i would use polycarbonate. I cut each triangle by using a hook blade, I then drilled two holes at the bottom of each triangle and used a chemical liquid to meld each side to each other in order to make a 3D triangle. I then traced the mannequins dimensions on muslim, placed the triangles and attached them with a piece of beige thread. Finally, I decided to keep the triangles see through because i wanted the models skin color to show through the piece.

One of the pieces that caught my attention immediately was Eric Fishl’s painting A Visit to – A Visit from the Island. This work of art was probably the strongest political piece in the room. The painting shows a diptych of two beaches. On the left hand side we see what looks like a beach in a fancy resort. In the front we see a nude white woman laying down on a surf board sunbathing, to the left of her is a white man scuba diving and directly behind is two other people standing in the water. Their body language expresses a relaxed and care free notion on this hot sunny day. On the right hand side, on a stormy beach we see dark skinned people, in the middle of a crisis desperately needing and calling for help. The scene looks like it could possibly be refugees fleeing. The message immediately hits you because the white people are completely oblivious to the reality of these tropical beaches and the struggle and pain that people of color are going through. To them, this is just a “paradise vacation” and an attempt to run away from their jobs, families and their “so called reality”. It made me realize how unaware people are when it doesn’t concern them or how people never think of what used to be here before them and the things people have gone through in order for places to be possible.  For me, the most powerful connection between the two figures dressed in white. Both look like they are caught in their own trauma. The figure on the left is the only one covered, her posture makes her feel lost, uneasy and worried as she chews on her nails. The figure on the right is in emotional pain while not knowing whether to keep trying or running to the shore. These details are what allowed me to enter the painting and the story.

Another work that was really interesting was “Real Violence”  the Virtual Reality piece by Jordan Wolfson. Even though I was only able to get through maybe 7 seconds of it, it completely messed with my mind. I think the scariest part of VR is that you get so involved with what’s going on inside the goggles, your mind gets so carried away that you forget your body is still in the “real world” and it’s scary knowing that you could wander off into a dangerous place without even being aware of it, or see things that you won’t be able to forget after. I took my goggles off before being fully immersed in what I was seeing because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to take the goggles off. Overall it was a unique experience, one I would probably never do again.

“On the move” talks about the idea movement and home. The way things keep changing and evolving but somehow parts of the things that are changing still find a way to connect to our roots and express a sense of melancholy. “When one is ready or forced to move is the time when fantasies rise to battle with experience. Pictures form in our minds and we go in search of them; they don’t always jibe with reality.” I believe we always have this idea of what moving will feel or be like. For me personally I thought it would be liberating to move and experience another city, but what i’ve learned is that you can never truly sense the feeling of home until you’re miles away from it. “To be of rather than in a place certainly does not demand one be born and raised there.” The point made here is very valid sometimes we find ourselves moving away from our home town and that we were never “home” or that we feel more familiar and in touch to this other place than we do in the place we were raised. But to me home isn’t a place, it’s not four walls, it’s two eyes and a heartbeat. For me home is people, home is memories, family and feelings. I believe if you’re with the right people you will always feel at home, no matter where you are. There’s also times where we find ourselves at peace with a place. We find inner peace and strength in a certain environment that maybe we’ve never even lived in. I also think the energy a place gives off is also a big aspect to feeling and finding home.

Project number 2 was about incorporating all the places we’ve lived as well as an aspect of ourselves into a collage which then became a three part project. The first part was to draw a self portrait of ourselves while looking at ourselves in the mirror. The second part was to make a photoshop collage and the third part was to grid and draw our collage with the medium of our choice. The most challenging part was the self portrait. It was hard for me to figure out the shading and which features of the face to darken. After pinning my drawing on the wall it was a lot easier to notice which parts needed improvement. For my collage I decided to use an outline of myself and fill them with the places that have had a big impact on who I am as a person. The middle image is a picture of the sun setting at the beach back in Vancouver which is my home. This beach, the mountains and the sun set are three huge parts of my life. I have memories on that beach from before I can even remember. The background represents the aspect of nature that holds great importance to my childhood as well as who I am today and the two outlines on the sides are filled with NYC’s skyscrapers. For my drawing of the collage I decided to use hard pastels because it has a softness to it that other mediums don’t always have. The colors of the middle drawing are brighter because they hold a more sensitive and emotional part of my life whereas the NYC silhouettes are harsher because i haven’t built that emotional connection to it yet, but it is slowly growing on me, which is why there is a little bit of light seeping through the top.

For this assignment we had to make a 3D polyhedron form with 5 or more faces with a pattern made by the laser cutter. I chose to make a dodecahedron made out of chip board. I started by making my art board the size of my chip board and the laser cutter which is 18×24. I then made one pentagon to the right size and line color and copied it 12 times. I then cut out small rectangles, measured and punched holes in them in order for them to align with each pentagon. I then used envelop pins as mechanical connectors.

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Mood Board

Sketches

For part 1 of project 2 we had to make a mood board and 3 sketches of an interlocking body object. For this project the purpose is to create a wearable object that will help us demonstrate the ways in which we relate to our community and to others. My first sketch is a head extension that becomes an umbrella, the second one is a hip extension that covers half of the chest and extends across to the opposite side of the body and the third one is a back extension that folds (opens and closes) which hovers over the body when opened.

For this assignment we had to apply serial planes concepts to create a structure with black or white foam board using the additive and subtractive methods. I chose to create the shape of a seahorse. I first started by cutting out the middle piece which was the biggest then i went on to create smaller versions. i decided to put them together by cutting out an oval shape and making thin slits in order to slide in each plane. Cutting the foam board was a challenge and if your blade isn’t sharp enough it will rip through the foam. That happened to two of my pieces so i used sand paper to soften the edges.