Liv (Site Specific)

SITE SPECIFIC

5/3/23 --> Positioning, Finishing, Arrow-Scattering, Photographing

As the deadline approaches, there are many mistakes I'm beginning to notice. For one, the leaves are facing the wrong direction. Plus, the flower head does necessarily fit the design of a sunflower. I have to settle, then, for the idea of a flower - or the idea of the weed. I suppose the foundation of the idea doesn't really include what specific flower is presented, merely the concept of 'fierceness,' 'weed,' 'flower,' and 'battle.' As long as I can further enhance these pre-present features of the site, I will consider myself a successful artist! At the very least, I am happy with the aesthetic and cohesive value of the limbs - as well as the body language of the flower. The sharp edges I added (in contrast to the original design) seem to enhance the scariness of the plant. This is a figure I could believe created the rubble of the 'for sale' lot.

5/1/23 --> Finalizing The Flower, Fitting Parts

The final step I am focusing on is making sure the arms and legs are equal in length, and can slip on and off each other. I've made it so that the neck can slide into the torso, but the arms and legs do not yet have a means of assemblage. I'm thinking I will have a separate cylinder of cardboard so that they can slide on (like a lego brick) to each other. I can also rubber-band them onto the cylinders so that they don't slide off in the wind. The feet have a compartment in the heel that it open to the entire leg. If I put rocks inside from the rubble, it will be weighted enough to stay - hopefully. I might have to do some wedging to make my vision happen. These next few days I have will be spent finishing the spiky leaf-bits on the arms, making the assemblage cylinders, crafting more arrows (or just arrow backs) out of fallen pine needles and twigs, and seeing where in the rubble everything should go for the pictures. I will not leave my flower in the rubble for long. I've worked to hard on him for him to get taken or blown away. 

Arms:

Leg Extension:

Arms with Hands Attached and Sprayed:

Arm with Leafy-Bit:

4/24/23 --> Paper Mache, Finishing Top, Hands

I finished the flower top. I hot-glued all the petals at the top together from their bottoms to make it spiky like a pistil. I paper-mached the gaps in-between the gaps and seams of the cardboards in the legs. I also began the arms and hands. The hands were difficult to proportion, but they came out well. I gave them pointed nails like thorns and used small strips of cardboard and glued and pinched the sides to make them bend into segments and curl around. 

I've also began spray-painting and mache-ing the neck of the flower, where it will attach to the pizza-box torso. 

 

I can also fit my hands inside the hands and I feel like a cyborg. It is very cool. 

4/17/23 --> Constructing the Flower, Cardboard Fitting - Conceptualizing the Concept

I wanted the flower to look like the drawing. I kept the image in my head as I made the legs and the flower head. I made the feet leaf-shaped almost like elf-shoes. It was difficult proportioning the anthropomorphism and the flower-stem-leaf aspects of the warrior. 

I know I want the flower to be a weed warrior - showing nature overcoming the man-made structure that was once there. Since there is already flower graffiti there, I feel like the warrior will fit right in. The area is a perfect battle-site for it to reside alongside the scattered arrows.

I made the flower base large enough that they would match the size of the legs. I know I want it to be squatting and reaching up above it in a victory pose - I want it to look intimidating and dangerous more than anything. So far, it's going to be bigger than I am. That might be difficult to carry in the car. 

The toes are pointed slightly upright like a leaf curling. The petals I made yellow, brown, and white to give them more depth and made the spray-paint less spraypainty. I want to give them more dimension. All of the cardboard comes straight from my recycling bins: capri-sun, amy's frozens, pizza boxes, package boxes, etc. I'm glad that I can reuse these items rather than burning them.

4/8/23 --> Arrow Crafting/Gathering Materials

I went to the park yesterday morning to find natural resources I could tie and glue into arrow-looking things. I found rocks, pot shards, pinecones, fallen pine needles, dead flowers, dead leaves, and bark. The twigs I still have from my Materialistic from the campfire, and I had loose twine and ribbon in my knitting basket. At first I stick to my original idea of having a sharp rock as the arrowhead, a leaf on the end, and a twig as the main body. The rock didn't look very arrow-like and the leaf didn't either. The pine needles look much more like the bristles on the end of an arrow, and I cut down the bark until it was shaped like an arrow head - the only problem is it was to thin that the glue didn't cut it when I tried to stick it to the stick, so I clamped it between two sticks that I tied together with twine and ribbon. 

Sorry I took the photos yesterday but I forgot to update my blog until today.

I drew a tomato warrior like the drawing I found on my last post but I didn't end up liking it as much as the original so I outlined that in pen and made the arm-leaves spikier and more like a dandilion. 

4/3/23 --> Further Ideation

Rubble Flower warrior:

This piece (DA) is by Aleksandr Kumpan

The worms coming out from the skull (though one is oddly phallic..) have a more grotesque effect than a normal skull would - the image of the skull is so overdone its almost lost its original meaning. Their is an inherent 'wetness' to the piece that makes one's skin crawl. Though I admire the fleshy detail, I would have to stray from the skin-like forms since they would distract from the 'prevailing nature' aspect of the flower monster warrior. I'm still not sure if I want to lean more towards the 'warrior' or 'monster' aspect of it. As Cierra suggested, I will be adding little flower underlings of the same/similar forms - perhaps different plant types with the same humanoid form? 

When I think of plant warrior, what comes to mind are plant-type pokemon like Nuzleaf:

I know it's blurry but its very cute! I love that its made out of tomatoes, that's adorable. I haven't had much luck finding 'plant warrior sculptures' but maybe I need to switch out some keywords. This one was made by Tuan Doan Anh.

Another artist, Tiffanie Turner, made a giant flower sculpture - not exactly a warrior, but still beautiful!

The idea I have in my head is kind of like - one won't have an impact long after they pass - their great grandchildren, or great great won't remember them or probably even know of them. The building is like a person's impact - it is built to last of course but will eventually crumble to rubble. Someone made the building, and their work has been overcome, as the clay and cement slabs are resubmitted to the elements. In a way, it's a very hopeful piece - that our impact can be lessened, and that what we do will always become 'undone' - even if not in this lifetime. Whatever one does, no matter how bad, time will erase it from memory. If no one remembers it, there's no evidence of it happening. That doesn't mean, however, there are no stakes. Overall, setting a good example effects humanity and our neighbors even if a small way - the impact and effect of good will carried through.

Instead of the flower warrior, could the large figure be a prince with warring underlings?

I drew this little guy on TuxPaint:

Maybe his tunic should also have the same dandelion petal formation? I feel like the outfit is somewhat Tinkerbell inspired because of the puff-balls. 

 

Project #3

Since Project 3 is situational, the best place to situate the sick 'runny nose' would be by a stream. The sickness is flowing into the stream and spreading. Though it is inconvenient, it is enveloped by the large water and becomes retrospectively small. I want the sick 'being' to blend into its environment naturally, like a being made of grass or roots, or maybe even concrete if it were to sit by a stream under a bridge - it could even be a sick troll.
It should also have its face scrunched up, and wrinkled in distress. 

Potential Locations:

Garfield Bridge

For Sale: Rubble Pile, South Laramie

Bridge, Near For Sale, South Laramie

Pine Trees On Campus

North Laramie, Something Canyon

Sketches For Bridges and Rubble Pile:

Sick Troll: Trolls live under bridge, I could put a troll who's sick from the weather with tissues everywhere and a big trail of snot running down his big nose.

Under the southside bridge I could put a lizard like monster who's stuck and shedding its skin (paper machete)

Giant Flower Warrior on a battle field covered in leaf arrows, trying to reclaim man-made objects, shows a victory - ties into the rose and daisy graffiti already there