Liminal Expressions

As I struggle through with a decisive and set thesis for senior thesis beyond just the generic human figure, I continue to make work about it.  I am currently in a show for advanced sculpture at DAAP for our midterm titled "Liminal Expressions."  My piece was a plaster sculpture of various body parts arranged at different heights on steel stands.

Lay In My Body
Plaster and steel
2013

To make this piece, I wrapped various parts of my body in plastic packing tape sticky side up and then covered another layer of the sticky side down.  After I cut myself out, I patched up the tape mold with more tape.  I then mixed plaster at a thicker consistency and poured it into my tape molds, spread it out, let it dry and cut open the tape mold.  Some pieces I was able to get very thin, which is rare for plaster because it is very fragile.

An example of how thin some of the pieces are.

Lay In My Body is made up of eight different pieces that make up the torso, shoulder and neck, legs and arms; there is no head or feet and hands.  This is the most abstract piece I have ever made.  I need to work on how I photograph and light the piece.  It was rather difficult because the piece is white and galleries are usually white, the piece gets lost in the space against the walls.  Someone suggested that I paint the stands black and photograph the piece against a black background to make the body parts stand out more.  If I could display this piece in my ultimate setting, it would be alone in a medium sized room that was painted a deep blue (floor and ceiling too) and each part of the piece would have its own light from directly above.  

Here are a couple more views of my piece from when it was in the 840 Gallery at DAAP.

Lay In My Body
Plaster and steel
2013

Lay In My Body
Plaster and steel
2013

Reactions

This past week, I have found myself stuck in a creative rut, if you will.  I am currently working on multiple sculpture pieces at the same time, this is new for me.  I rarely work on more than two pieces at the same time.  It is quite the challenge.  But two nights ago, I remembered a video of a performance piece I watched last year in Figure Sculpture. This is the video:

Instantly I was set with inspiration!  With my future career focused on makeup, this piece had far more significance to me now than it did a year ago.  I grabbed some clay, called up a friend, set up a photography studio in my apartment and here are the results.  My reaction piece.

Before
Model: Nancy Pickard

Clay Reacts
Part I

Clay Reacts
Part II

Clay Reacts
Part III

Clay Reacts
Part IV

Clay Reacts
Part V

Clay Reacts
Part VI

Rather than mimic Sagazan's sculptural element like in his performance, I treated the clay as a makeup product.  I used only one layer of clay that I darkened with water or additional clay.  I am pleased with the contrast in color between her eyes and hair with the clay and skin.  I was fascinated how childlike Nancy looked after I covered up her eyebrows.  The element of makeup, even though I used clay, and the transformative properties it holds never cease to amaze me.

Vancouver Film School

I have been doing some research on the next step of my education since I am a senior and will graduate in April of 2014.  I was looking into various types of education in makeup and I happened upon the Makeup Design for Film & Television program at Vancouver Film School.  Have you ever heard of the Sci-fi television show "Face Off"? That is what I immediately thought of when I discovered this school.    The makeup their students do is phenomenal!

One of their exercises was to create realistic makeup for a practice emergency crisis.  Here is a video of that experience.

And here is a video of the aging process using makeup:

This school looks incredible - as if it's too good to be true!