Plaster body cast

Click picture to enlarge.

 I just came back to my dorm after doing a Plaster of Paris body cast of the backside of my body.  This is a record that I would have usually written in my sketchbook, but instead, I am posting this as a blog post.

For Form Study, we are doing Process Art.
Process Art is a type of artwork where the artist's intention is to focus on the process, and not know/control the end product.  For example, and artist might do the process of "to rip", and he would rip sheet-metal with tools.  Or, she might do "to heat", and she would apply a torch to glass bottles.

I have mixed thoughts about Process Art.  On one hand, it can be commendable  but on the other hand, it can be easy to "cop-out" (compared to Non-Process Art).
I chose the verb "to sleep".

My other "to sleep" project is to sleep on different piece of large sheet of brown craft-paper every night for a week, then pin up the 7 pieces of paper on a wall.
For my class, I am only required to do this one project; I am not required to do this body cast project.

I listened to Chopin when preparing the cast, and Dark Side of the Moon (and Live at Pompeii) when mixing the plaster and waiting.

A teacher/professor, I'll call her "C", helped me with this project.

-Lay down craft-paper on table
-Lay wooden boards, size of body, on table
-Lay craft-paper on the boards
-Put smaller boards upright around big boards (that are covered in craft-paper)
-Use clay to fill gaps between boards, and to stable boards upright (and together)
-Mix plaster (1 bag) and pour into wooden container.  Repeat this step
-Cover body with much Vaseline, wear inexpensive swim-suit, wear (latex) swim cap
-When plaster is in putty-stage, carefully try to evenly distribute your weight as you lay in the plaster
-Don't move for at least 30 min.
-Plaster will get warm/hot
-Wait until all plaster gets warm/hot, then wait 5-10 min
-Remove yourself from plaster

I made the mistake of using oil and body-lotion, instead of Vaseline, so I got stuck in the plaster.  It hurt to remove my legs, back, shoulders, and especially my neck, where some of my hair that didn't get into the swim-cap got stuck.  This was painful.  I had to have some of my hair cut out.

When I was laying in the plaster, practicing my process "to sleep", I thought that it felt like I was in a tomb.

"C" put a white sheet of craft-paper over me, except for my head, when I was cold and asked her if she could do that.  Later, she was the one to put the whole sheet over my head.  I did this because I thought that it would be an interesting experience.  I found it to be a strange feeling, to be half encased in plaster, with a white sheet of paper over me.  It also helped keep the chill off.  I think that this could feel claustrophobic to certain people (I didn't feel claustrophobia).  See photo 2.

"C" explained this study, done by an autistic woman, about animals.  Her study's result was that (all) animals like to be encased/hidden/hugged to feel safe.
Chicken though narrow passageway to slaughterhouse, is more humane.
That's why dogs like to be under the kitchen table.

I still have to cast my top half, and then cast my head.

Inspirations and related texts:

"Human" by The Killers

"To be, or not to be" Hamlet 3/1 by William Shakespeare

Stand-up act

Yesterday, 20Sept, Thursday night, and hour before an Open Mic Night at MassArt, my roommates tell me that they're going to attend the event.  So, I said that I wanted to do a stand-up act.  They supported me to do it.

As the show was closer to happening, I became more nervous.  I am scared of public speaking.  Also, I didn't know what I would say (the content) for a stand-up act.  Later, I chose to talk about how confusing Boston has been for me.

At the location of the performance, a gallery where every piece of artwork was upside-down, I talked to the guy running it, and I got to be one of the first acts.  I wanted to get it over with.  I was very nervous.

I got in front of the audience, it was quite a few people, and started talking.  I think my voice was shaking.  But, I got through some stories, and the audience laughed, and seemed to enjoy it.

I left the show early to go back to my dorm to get space.

I said something around the lines of:

I'm a Freshman, I just moved to Boston from Maine, and it's confusing to me.  Like, this room (the upside-down artwork gallery), I've never been here before, and everything is upside-down.  I'm think that there's a deeper meaning to this (I gestured to the artwork), but I don't get it.  I find it confusing.

It's like the other day, I was with family, and we were driving around Boston (this part, I mixed two stories together), but no one knows where anything is.  I asked about ten people how to get to Landmark Center, and no one knew.  Even adults who've lived here didn't know.  Or, they/people would tell me different things.  I don't know.  I'm not good at directions, anyways.  But, in the car, we'll see my dorm, it's right there, but every street is a "one-way", so it took a while to get there.

Yesterday, I went to an Outdoors Club meeting.  Afterwards, I saw that Student Development (office) was open, so I went there to get information about Student Government (SGA).  The man at the desk said that the SGA meeting just started, and that they had just finished introductions.  I went into the room, and they asked me: my name, grade, major, pronoun, and super-power.  I told them my name, that I didn't know what my intended major would be, that my pronoun is "Fay", because in English (class), a first-name is a pronoun, and that my super-power would be able to play an instrument mildly well.  They were really nice, they pulled up a chair for me and everything.  But, as the meeting progressed, I realized that it wasn't a Student Government meeting, it was the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA).  I get these acronyms confused... SGA, GSA...

I have Form Study class, and each person had a different assignment. The first part of my project was the make a paper-mache cereal-bowel, for the second part I chose to make a full-sized human sculpture, and then our teacher gave each of us an additional assignment specific to our projects. She told one person to clean up the lines in his project, and told someone else to add more to her project, and she asked me to figure out what it means to be human. That's a difficult question.

I don't know, I'm new here in Boston, and it's been confusing.

"Human"

Click picture to enlarge.

On the first week of school, for Form Study, we were assigned to follow a strict set of rules; each student had a different set of DIY instructions.  Mine was a bowl made of strips of paper glued together.

For the second part of the project, we were told to keep one element/idea from the first part, to use in the second part.  I kept the rule of strips of paper glued/paper-mached.  We were also told to use a rule/idea from another student's project; I choose the rule of interlocking cardboard.  Otherwise, I had the freedom to do what I wanted to.

I also went on a trip around the school to find where most of the paper recycling is kept (Tower 4th floor, I think).

With this, I made a life-sized human sculpture (aprox. 5'7", or 171cm).  The inside structure is interlocking cardboard, it's pretty strong.  Gaps are filled with crumpled recycled paper, held together by duct-tape.  Then, it's paper-mached a few layers, and painted a bluish-white.

I had originally meant for my "Human" to be more realistically proportioned/shaped, but I was limited by my experience in this material, and by my (less than) one week time limit.  Since it began to look less human, I worked with that, and continued to try to make it look less human by painting a bluish-white.

"Human" can stand-up on its own, though I don't let it free-stand when I'm not there, because I'm afraid that it'll fall.

Overall, it was almost too big of a project to take on.

Hands/Feet

Above, are two photos of the view from my drawing class, at 9AM.  The building in the pictures look out at Smith Hall, the dorm that I live in.  Since the Smith Hall building is an asymmetrical triangle, from the drawing-classroom, Smith Hall appears larger than it really is.

I enjoy mornings.  Since all of my classes are morning classes, I wake up when the city begins to wake up, and before the sun is high.  I have a cup of coffee with breakfast every morning, and look outside at the school (the North/East-building [I'm not sure what it's really called] is the older part of the school), and at the few trees that are by the building.  Every few minutes, there is the sound of the T-stop (train stop) directly in front of my dorm, and the sounds of cars in traffic.

Last Wednesday, I turned in my Drawing homework assignment, to draw the: right hand, left foot, and  right foot, five drawings per extremity, drawing with the left-hand (I'm right-handed), without looking the paper, and spend 30-minutes per drawing.
I was only able to spend 10-20 minutes per drawing, and when I met with my advisor (about scheduling), I talked to him about this assignment.
When I turned my drawing in on Wednesday, I was the only student who did the right (who understood the assignment).

The lesson of this assignment was the following:
To practice intense focus
To sync your eye-movement to hand-movement
To loose the "ego" of trying to draw a recognizable hand/foot

Apple picking

    

I had signed up for this trip, we left at 9AM and returned at 4PM, it involved:

School-bus ride to Ipswich (MA), about an hour long

Short hayride, some people were afraid of all of the bees

Pick your own peck of apples, I filled the bag and then some with mostly Cortland apples

A few hours to roam the Orchard's store and see animals.  There were several aggressive free-roaming geese.  I took most of my photos here.

Go to a beach for two hours.

I took photos while I was there for my Visual Language homework (12 black/white abstract photographs inspired by the word "converse".  The photos in this post are not part of my project.)

Classes

My schedule for this semester.

Visual Language: This class applies academic/formal terms to art, and requires attention to observe and to utilize this language (ie. assemblage, composition, negative space, etc).  For homework, I have to write a 1-page paper and do a powerpoint presentation about an artist of my choice, and turn a concrete (not literarily) thing/object into abstract; I don't find this difficult, because I've practiced this type of thinking in the past.  What I haven't done much is to integrate culture and history to my artwork.

Form Study: My homework is to make the Bird's Nest Bowl from Woman's Day Magazine, watch DIY videos, think about this experience, for this class.  I think that future projects will be the hardest part.

Intro to Western Art: The professor sounds like David Sedaris, and both are funny.  The class is held in the auditorium, with almost all of the incoming class, about 490 students.  The professor stands up on the stage, and he talks while presenting an image-based (not text-based) slideshow.  Homework is to read part of the textbook and write a 1-page paper about a single piece of artwork in a local art museum; I'm looking forward to writing this paper.

Out of Arabia (seminar): Lecture-based.  We're learning about Arabian architecture/art and how it relates to their cultural mindset (ie. veiling/covering the Kaaba for respect and humbleness seems to relate to veiling people).  Homework is to read two articles.

Intro to Film and Video: The class is in a special film screening/viewing room (absorbs sounds, black room). Our future project is to work in pairs to take the "portrait" of a person or a place.

Drawing: I think that this will be my most difficult class.  We cannot listen to music in class.  Our professor talks a lot, in metaphors, and he is intense about the parts of the drawing process.  Homework is considered one of the shortest assignment: 6 hours blind contour drawing done with the opposite hand that we draw with.  At least 5 drawings of each foot, and of the hand; about 30 min. per drawing. He says that for these first two weeks, the drawings (end result) don't matter (he used a different phrase than this), and that our focus/observation on the object is key.

MFA: Ori Gersht

I walked to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) today to see Ori Gersht's exhibition.  MFA: Ori Gersht

Some of his pieces, especially: Pomegranate (video), Big Bang (video), and a frame from Big Bang (very large print, Big Bang frame).

I found his pieces beautiful/pleasant at first, then violent/gory/disgusting/injust, afterwords

I took notes in my sketchbook about his gallery and ended up filling-up/finishing my sketchbook!  Now I'm on my next sketchbook.

Before going to the MFA, I bought a big, metal, rolling-cart.


Click on images to make them bigger.