Week 1 – Object Analysis
#1 Water bottle
#2 Day Planner
#3 Earring
#4 T-shirt
Week 2 – Object Analysis
3 brainstorm ideas for assemblage project
Prompt 1
Prompt 2
Stacy with the sassy ponytail
I included 3 photos of this so I could show just how sassy she is. I wrapped my shirt around the finger hole and tied her brfaid together with rope.
Pierced Love
I opened my planner upside down and how two pages meet in the middle of the spine so it formed a heart. My black earring is keeping it together.
Prompt 3
Stacy the water bottle
Stacy the water bottle notices you but is choosing to not look behind her and say hi. “I am the most beautiful and perfect water bottle with the most thick and fullest ponytail to ever grace this earth” Stacy says, as she stands, looking the other direction. No other object can compare to her beauty and she knows this as well. Stacy is not a bad bottle, she just knows her worth and won’t give you the light of day if she doesn’t see fit.
Stacy turns a 90 degree angle. She thinks “I guess someone as pretty as me can be the light of your day”. She sees your and gets annoyed, you aren’t noticing her and that makes her feel powerless. She tries to clear her throat and make noises so you look at her but nothing. She flicks her ponytail in a rage and it’s very clear she is giving you the side eye.
You now have her attention. ” how can someone like this not notice me, the most perfect and beautiful water bottle to ever grace this earth” she thinks as she faces you. Stacy is in disbelief that she has to be the one to say “hi” to you first. You say hi back then she thinks “maybe I’m not the most perfect object to ever grace this earth, and I need to think other water bottles are no better or worse than me”.
Stacy learned a valuable lesson this day, having the most thick and fullest ponytail doesn’t give you the right to think you’re worth more than another water bottle . She goes on talking to you and she grows more wise as a water bottle.
Week 3 – Project process updates
*I’m currently in Montreal so I won’t be able to create many of the elements because they are at home (and i’m flying with a budget airlines so I get charged heavily on weight) . I’ll post pictures of materials I use and how i’m going to construct it.*
I picked this brainstorm because I feel the most emotion when looking at it. I grew up gay and closeted and I wanted to show the journey that I had to go through internally with objects that i’ve held close to my heart. I will make it how it’s shown below and use a lot of lighting so you can see every texture and detail perfectly.
“Internal Voyage“
Materials
Beaded rock
I will feed wire through lots of multicoloured beads and then crunch it all together to form a mis-shaped sphere and put that on top of a spiral pedestal made from the wires.
Meaning: The beads represent my Metis background because it is used in a lot of traditional artwork. I’m using multicoloured beads to represent the pride flag colours.
Welsh love spoon
I have one that my mom gave to me, and her grandmother gave to her. Love spoons were meant to be given to a girl from a man to represent his love, but nowadays it can be given to family members, friends and acquaintances.
Meaning: For me, this will be used as a paddle to carry me on my boat and it represents the only cultural background that I was taught when I was younger.
Mountain and waves on canvas
I will use plaster and a plaster paint knife with ridges so it will give a line texture when I create mountains and waves with it. I will do 3 different canvases.
Meaning: This represents where I grew up. Prince Rupert is full of mountains and surrounded by oceans and it helps resemble the tough journey i’ve been on with my internal voyage.
Boat
I will craft a boat with an abalone shell and the same wires I use for the beaded rock. The abalone shell will be the middle of the boat and I will spiral the wire on both sides to make a deck and bow, then connect them in the middle.
Meaning: Metis people use abalone shells as smudge bowl. They would light sage in it and walk around with it to ward off bad spirits. I think it would be a fitting piece to include to send me on my way to good will and fortune.
Broken Glass
I will break some item made of glass and use it as the water that my boat will go through.
Meaning: Broken glass will be used as the water portion and it represents the hurt that i’ve felt with not loving myself and my sexuality while growing up.
Week 4 – Guest Artist Reflection & Project updates
Amber Morrison Fox
The guest speaker is named Amber Morrison Fox and she lives in Nanimo, B.C. She creates a lot of escentric drawings and is the owner of the sad girl review, an online art and literary magazine. Ambers influence resides heavily with games, anime and feminism. I relate to her so much with her work, it’s against the grain and states a message. I even wen’t as far as asking her if I was able to purchase a physical copy, I love the way this cover looks.
Recently i’ve been really into trying out different fashion trends and enhancing my personal fashion all together and this magazine spoke to me in that sense. Amber has done such a good at putting together a magazine layout and all the floral and colors she uses really makes the magazine as a whole pop.
I love the idea of using where she lives in her work as much as she can, she basically replicated the Nanaimo art gallery and made it an interactive game. She introduced me to other adobe programs and what you can use them for, it would be fun to take a look at them and integrate them into projects. I also noticed on her website that she really takes advantage of grants and bursaries (which you should). She uses them and makes magnificent work that brings lots of joy to people and the community.
Project Update – “Internal Voyage”
Background
I wen’t to Wallmart and found some plaster, canvas and plaster knives to make my background. I plastered it on with the big knife and then did small details with smaller paint knives.
Pride egg
I used copper wire and fed pony beads through it. When I had enough I wrapped it around eachother so it made a ball/egg shape.
Abalone boat
I used a silver wire that i rapped around the abalone shell to represent the boat. Initially wanted to put spirally wire going off the deck and the bow, but I made the decision to leave it as is to represent more of a boat and not a canoe.
Love spoon
I took your idea and printed out the same love-spoon that I have and glued it to cardboard and from there I cut it out with an exacto knife. It turned out great!
Lighting
I was initially going to have the light source from my lamp, but it wasn’t showing the texture of the plaster like I wanted (it was also hard to get a decent photo as you can see). So I switched to having a string light coming form above instead.
Egg placement / Sand
I found an egg cup that I used instead of spiralling wire because I wanted to keep it true to the white theme I had going in the background. I bought white sand, and these small cylinder shaped glitter to represent refined glass
“Sage”
I really liked how the love-spoon and the abalone boat turned out. I wanted to try and burn some sage in it, but it wasn’t capturing on camera how I wanted it to so I left it.
Project – “Internal Voyage”
This is the final product of internal voyage assemblage project. There were a couple snags on the way, but I am happy with how it turned out. I think I managed to translate what I had planned originally into reality nicely. I took your advice and added some beads in the white sand leading to the egg, it adds a really nice contrast and meaningful element against the white background. On the mountains to the left, I added some lightening and clouds to add a sense of internal conflict and hatred. To the right you can find the mountains with a sense of peace displayed by the clear sky and sunshine. It was fun to create this and find different ways to be innovative with with materials I wouldn’t usually use. I took out the canoe part of the abalone shell and wrapped it in wire to show my metis heritage caged as I grew up.
