Starting Soap Carving & Janine Antoni Response

This may be a worthless observation but I was not expecting the soap I needed to be the hosh-posh luxury soaps that get their own cart set aside from the regular bathroom items. This stuff is Italian made, imported, and you can smell the fragrances at the door of the art building before you even reach the classroom.

For Janine Antoni, my first reaction was to her explanation of the rope, which was braided with various fabrics from meaningful people and occasions of her life. "A rope is an umbilical cord," she said, which connects us not just to our mothers, or our creation, but it is a red string of fate binding our friendships, spouses, strangers, and colleagues, which she then reveals to us through her installation. I understand her reasoning for her performance pieces and like how she explains that with her body, she is indirectly calling upon the viewer's body; that in turn tricks the viewer into feeling as she feels. She is making art through materials, sight, and muscle memory, in a way.

Regarding the chocolate and soap piece, initially I thought it was just a clever gimmick and then I thought about it and realized I did not understand it. Then she commented on how soap is usually made of lard, so "washing the body with the body" was indeed a strange irony. I appreciate the way she thinks and find myself doubting what she's doing until I hear her explain it, and then I'm like, "Oh, of course." That has not happened too often with me and modern art.

Architecture Relief

Firstly, things started off with these reference images:

And I wanted to take the styles of modern architecture, Venetian Gothic, and at the last minute I chose to work with a pyramid structure.

Starting off, we made a small, paper mock-up....which wound up being glued to my cutting mat. Live and learn.

Sadly this project goes under the list of "Out of time, just finish it" assignments. The process of gluing the wires inside took way longer than I anticipated so it looks as if they were a last minute decision but I wanted them to be a thick web inside the pyramid. Perhaps it was because the mock-up was glued to my mat that I wound up neglecting the screens or "windows" in the cut out sides of the pyramid, and the dangling bits should have been strung on the wires inside the pyramid.

However I was pleasantly surprised by the result of coating masking tape on paper, followed by ink, gesso, and gel medium. The corners have an almost leather appearance as well as texture.

Masking Tape Shoes

I knew my experience with three-dimensional work as opposed to two-dimensional was limited but it became abundantly clear with my surprise by how difficult simple masking tape can be to work with. Initially I thought making the shoes would be easily doable, especially the Converse sneakers I had been wearing for two years because I was so familiar with them. I was wrong. While my respect for Converse has gone up because I now recognize the slightest differences in shape the shoes have in comparison to other brands that makes them stand out and be fashion forward, replicating them with tape was a poor decision on my part.

If I were to go back and make another pair of shoes, I would certainly purchase an inexpensive pair that ought to be a simpler design and cut them up to see the individual pieces instead of just looking and guessing.

Touch Project for 3-D

Article Title: "Speaking of Touch."

The article discussed different uses for the word 'touch' as well as how it is not merely skin deep. While the phrase "touch dancing" was used to describe old fashioned, waltz-like dancing, the article also discussed 'touche' as a moment in fencing. I chose to use it in the piece for a triple meaning since skilled fencers and other martial artists behave similarly to dancers in their technique and precision, while the foils touching almost creates the cliched heart symbol, suggesting how touch is pivotal in both martial, artistic, and romantic fields of interest.

Article Title: "The Skin Has Eyes."

This article immediately struck me because I happened to be working on a sugar skull self portrait in my spare time, and when the article said, "children often draw people with big heads and hands, because that is the way their body feels to them," I realized just how far my self portraits and my view of myself has changed over time. Because of the sense of touch in my hands and eyes, I can more fully see and feel the contours of my face, the softness of feathers and better replicate them with lines and shape, but I also enjoyed reminiscing how I used to draw years ago; back when everything was simpler because you really did only feel a disproportionate head on your shoulders and hands that looked like goofy flowers.