Mandi's Blog

ZINE-COVER PAGE

2008-11-24T16:42:00.000-08:00

I decided for my somewhat of a non-realistic zine to write about what it would be like if two very different sculpture artists combined their work in order to create a new type of art...which I named "SPIRALING ART." I kept on thinking that two artists,if this were to happen,would be combining a plethora of ideas together to create one and sometimes it would seem like they were getting no where by just "spiraling" around with ideas on what to make.In my zine I imagined what it would be like if the two artist,Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson that I researched for my topic on sculptures, would create a sculpture together.There are plenty of photos of their own work and quotes that describe what and why they create what they create.Then I tell the reader what each artists style is and I show a final photo as what I think their combined efforts would create.There is also an article on some artists who have worked together on certain projects and I go into depth on whether or not artists who work alone or work together are more successful.I hope my zine gets my message across that new art can be create every day between any one.

Research on Louise Nevelson

2008-11-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

I chose for my second research topic to pick another sculptor...because I really

want to learn as much as I can about a few sculptors.Louise Nevelson sparked my interest.

I actually came across one of her pieces in my modern art book and I just loved the amount

of detail that she would put into her pieces.For a while I thought that her sculptures were

made out of metal,which would have been great since my topic was on strong metal sculptures,

but then I found out that they were made out of painted wood. It's shocking to think that it's only

wood because it has such a strong feeling that most metal sculptures have.I found this to be very

interesting, so I decided that I would still research her more and see why she chose to use wood

for her grand sculptures instead of metal and what her techniques were.

"Nevelson was living in poverty and materials were expensive:necessity was the mother of this

invention." She is known for her abstract expressionist "boxes" that when she puts them all together

they form a new creation of the world.Nevelson says, "When you put things that other people have

thrown out, you're really bringing them to life-a spiritual life that surpasses life for which they

originally created." This is why everything is made from wood or other random found objects that she then just

paints.

A very interesting fact that I found about Nevelson was that she never started out in the art field as

a sculptor.She originally only created paintings, but she's known for her abstract box sculptures because

sculpturing is the field that she really shines in and shows that she is a mature artist.All of her work is very

mysterious,with a hinged door, cabinet or something placed secretly here and there in her very large scaled

pieces. "The supplies was scavenged from alleys,painted all black and sometimes white,that sit on the floor but

also hug the wall." Since her pieces are painted one color mainly, it allows her massive sculptures to create a

plethora of interesting shadows on the sculptures itself and on the walls.She's big on using the light as another

meduim. I really admire Nevelson because she is in a mainly men's field of sculpturing and is still shinning.

She uses her paints and natural light to create the look of real metal,which is why it confused my eyes.

This article: Louise Nevelson,Finding Her Way was by Jessican Dawson of The Washington Post.(10/7/04)

Collage

2008-11-05T14:21:00.001-08:00

After combining my logos, text, live traced image, traced sketch and my scanned sketch...I was able to create my collage.This collage to me describes what Alexander Calder's and also what my opinion is of what abstract metal sculptures represent and the inspiration behind them.I think the scattered quality of the final collage opens the viewer's eyes to see how an artist's mind can be all over the place in search for the the right information.I tried to incorporate as many sculptures as I could into the collage, since that was my topic. The sculptures that I incorporated were the ones that I created and also the ones that Calder created.I added some extra shapes here in there because most of his metal sculptures were solely shape oriented.I also used the opacity tool a lot to fade and enhance certain pieces of the collage that I found interesting.

Live Tracing an Image

2008-11-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

This is my original image with Alexander and his Snazzy car.

Here's the Live Traced Version.

Research on Alexander Calder

2008-11-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

My topic for this class was sculptures and, as I began to walk around Philly looking for sculptures, I realized that the ones that I drew a liking to were the abstract metal sculptures. I liked the fact that metal sculptures are so strong and bold looking and really make a statement once they are set up. This is why I love the sculptor Claes Oldenburg, but since I have already seen much of his work and know a lot about him I chose to research the sculptor Alexander Calder.

He has done a plethora of bobbing mobiles.And some of his more crazy sculptures are 10' high Red Big Devil and "Big Siamese Twins". Those two sculptures have been more of his confrontational works of art. This is because "Calder is a humorios, prankster and is in a class completely of his own."

When it comes to what colors Calder uses in his sculptures, he likes to stick to the archetypal modernist trio of red, yellow and blue.Then at the same time he could make black seem like the only color that anyone could need.I find that to be a very interesting statement, since some people always think that in order to really make a statement you have to use color.

I have really come to enjoy Calder's wire creations as well...I have never really seen any wire work before."His wire-thin creations effortly command great volumes of air," the article explains.At the same time no matter if it's a wire pice or a metal sculpture, "His sturdy pieces could give a hurricane a run for its money."It also says that his exhibits are amazing and very interesting to to really see in person.Calder sounds like a very excellent sculptor and I hope that I'll have time this weekend to go visit the Philadelphia Art Museum and see some of his work up close in person.

This is the article. It was published by the New York Times and had various articles that I used by Roberta Smith and John Russell

2008-10-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

My original sketch of a sculpture was a bunch of game pieces of games that

I used to play as a kid. I drew my inspiration from the game pieces that are here in Philly.

Those game pieces are just laid across a given area, but I thought that it would be interesting if they were stacked on top of one another, which is what I did.

Once I drew my sketch and scanned it, I then traced it; which was by far the hardest part and ended up taking forever to complete. This was my first time using the pen tool and I think it came out alright for my first attempt.

After it was all traced, that's when I could start to have some fun. I used the gradient tool to give my sketch that sykadelik look. Then I also wanted to change up the sketch a little bit from the original tracing, so I used a few of the warp tools. I didn't want to take away from the sketch,but I wanted each image to be unique in their own way.

Logos

2008-10-19T21:12:00.001-07:00

My topic is SCULPTURES, so in each logo I tried to express a different aspect as to how the word sculpture could be interpreted into a logo. Since I was doing METAL SCULPTURES, the first thing that popped into my head was welding tools, colors, sparks and things of that nature. I used a lot of color in my logo to make them pop and in three of the logos you can see the use of the welding inspiration through my drawings of the welding mask and hammer that I incorporated into my logos. In one of the logos I even put my pretend company's initials in this abstract color design and the abstract design stands for an abstract piece of Metal Sculpture. I tried very hard to make my logos represent my topic of METAL SCULPTURES.

Text

2008-10-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

I decided that if I came up with a fake company name for my topic of SCULPTURES, then it would be easier to come up with ideas for fonts. It did work and the company name that I came up with was "Metal Sculpting Junkies." Most of my fonts that I chose are very geometric and bold fonts. All of the sculptures that I chose were very strong abstract pieces, so I really wanted each text to stand out and be somewhat simple but still make a statement at the same time.

Anything Goes in Photoshop!

2008-10-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

I wanted to create something that really looked like a normal image,but once you got close up to it you could start to see the things that didn't belong.My sculptures relate to the topic,because they are everyday things and they could be found in the ocean, who knows, so that's what I did, I put them in the ocean.

Here is my Photoshop image...and you can see where I added all the images that I posted down below.I thought that the hand sculpture would look cool if it looked like it was reaching in the ocean for something. Then the Little blue guy in the corner was a sculpture that I found that acted as a person swimming who was blowing bubbles from the image that I got from the web.

These are all of my originals that I used in Photoshop in order to make my image the way that it looks.

Bubbles

Playing Around with Photoshop some more!

2008-09-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here's my somewhat of the original photo.I adjusted the sky's color to make it a deeper blue and I also made the red on the sculpture a brighter red because the original red was way too dark.

My sculpture after I had fun with it & changed the grass,sky,sculpture & street sign.I thought that the sculpture was way too dark in the original,so I decided to brighten it up & to really make it the center of the pic by making it stand out with its intense blue/pink coloring.I think that by making the changes that I did,I was able to make the sculpture have more tone and shading.

PICS DONE IN PHOTO SHOP!!!

2008-09-22T20:15:00.002-07:00

Trying to stick with my theme of sculptures, I decided to make this little blue guy sculpture that I found to look somewhat like an illusion. I thought it was interesting because once I saw the little blue guy sculptures shrunken down,they reminded me of raindrops.I thought that I would play around with the idea that a hair dryer is blowing out hot air, but why does it look like(from the picture) that there are rain drops blowing out?

The background in this picture was this object's (the peace sculpture) inspiration.I felt that the neon grasses really reflected the hands of the scuplture.They were flexible and curved and just reminded me somewhat of the qualities of a hand.

MY TOPIC...SCULPTURES!!!

2008-09-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

For my topic I decided on taking pictures of sculptures.I actually went to the Sculpture Garden just a few blocks from MOORE.

I'm not sure what my major is going to be in the future, but I have always found abstract sculptures very interesting and I have always loved the idea that really anything in the environment could inspire a piece of artwork.

After walking around the Sculpture Garden and trying to find their inspiration throughout Philly I saw that Philly actually had a lot to offer.(through their buildings,especially the old buildings and construction sites,etc.)

PICTURES OF MY TOPIC AND THEIR INSPIRATION!

2008-09-15T15:56:00.002-07:00

Multiple Triangle Sculpture

Inspiration

Little Blue Guy Sculpture

Inspiration

Spider Sculpture

Inspiration

Originally a red & blue Sculpture

Inspiration

Daily Events on Sunday 9/7/08

2008-09-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Shower Time @ 7:00 A.M.

Blow dried my hair @ 7:30 A.M.

Brushed my teeth after breakfast @ 8:45 A.M.

Checked my email~Ewww...Spam @ 9:00 A.M.

Staples Run~Went to Staples for school supplies & then walked around Philly @ 10:00 A.M.

Ate Lunch~Cup of Noodles @ 2:00 P.M.

Laundry Day~My very first load of laundry since I've been at MOORE...nothing changed colors either @ 4:00 P.M.

Homework Time~I had so much to do @ 5:30 P.M.

Movie Night with a few girls on my floor @ 10:00 P.M.

Life At MOORE...so far

2008-09-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

All I have to say is that when we had our holiday weekend I went home thinking that it would be great to see everyone again,which it was, but I couldn't wait to come back to MOORE.I was really shocked,I love living here and so far all of my classes have been petty good. I've been meeting new people which is cool.The thing that's the greatest though,is that I'm in Philly and every chance that I get I try to go out and explore the city a little bit.I can't wait to have a full week of school and really get a feel for what life is like at MOORE.That's all for now...hopefully things will still go as smoothly as next week as they have been going this week.