Drawing in Space

 

 

 

 

• Describe the general character and specific design features that led you to choose the object you chose to work with.

The character of the shoe I chose to work with was powerful, feminine, and buoyant. I liked that it was feminine in shape but still supportive and strong, and I liked the boldness associated with stepping out in such a shoe. It is also made of reflective vinyl, which I thought would be fun to draw, and I liked the rounded, full shapes in the shoe and thought the volume would be nicely represented in wire.

• Reflect on what your shoe or object choice might say about your identity in relation to your culture, and how, as a functional object, that object facilitates participation in a community of shared culture.

As a functional object, the shoe says a lot about my personal culture to those who are in the know. Its brand, Pleaser, is a cult favorite among online fashion influencers and Depopers, both categories I fall into, and platforms are both very on-trend and a major part of my personal style, as I hate flat shoes. Subsequently, the shoe identifies me as a person who is part of the current culture of 90s-inspired style and someone who is involved with fashion, as well as someone who partakes in internet and online shopping culture.

• Evaluate how you met the assignment objectives by describing the line quality or qualities used in your sculpture. Be specific, especially in explaining your strategy for employing cross contour to create structure. Discuss how you made decisions about how to use line direction/orientation, thickness, character, color, and how you laid out connections in your design.

In order to meet the objectives of this assignment, I made a basic contour of my object with thick, silver wire to function as a frame of sorts, and then economically used thinner wires as cross contours to capture the volume and shape of the piece. The thicker wire was strong enough to maintain its shape as the thinner wire was added, and the thinner wire was malleable enough to accurately portray the curves of the structure. I first used curved, vertical cross-contours to capture the convex shape of the shoe’s body and heel, straight vertical contour lines to capture the strength of the platform, and then added a horizontal line around the perimeter of the shoe’s body to better capture the curve and volume. I also added curved contour lines across the bottom sole of the shoe so the volume of it didn’t fall out the bottom and make the shoe look incomplete. I wanted the sculpture to look neat and sleek like the shoe, so I tried to be sparing with the amount of contours I added and kept the connections symmetrical and evenly spaced. For some particular connections, I used a more messy and jagged form to represent scuffing and wear on the edges of the material. I used black wire for all the cross contours to represent the color of the shoe, and silver to represent where the light hit more on the shoe, giving a shiny and lighter appearance.

• Describe what linear material besides wire your chose to include in your sculpture, and why you chose that material. If you only used wire, explain why you did not choose to include another material.

I chose not to employ another linear material because the shoe was made entirely out of black rubber and vinyl with a single metal clasp, and I felt wire would represent the sheen and look of the actual shoe best as opposed to something more matte like string.

• Describe something you would do differently if you could make your sculpture again.

If I were to make this sculpture again, I would use a thicker wire for the secondary lines as the thinner wire became so easily bent out of shape that the statue had an unprofessional and more messy look than I would have liked. Had I used the single thicker wire I used for the base of the structure throughout, I think the statue would have looked much cleaner.

• Identify an aspect of your work that is particularly strong.

I think an aspect of my work that was particularly strong was the economy of line I employed to capture the shoe’s volume and structure without any superfluous or unnecessary lines. I also think the placement of my connections and capturing of the way the shoe interacts with the ground were particularly strong.