I am interested in the fragility of
human life; how short or long a person’s life, how many live mundane lives when
yet they only have one life and they are wasting it away. Some people die very young where as
others live to be over one hundred.
Some people waste their lives with drugs, alcohol, and meaningless jobs
or within a prison cell. The human
life is fragile and delicate thing in the existence of the world. I wish to explore the complex nature of
a lifespan within my work; Make the audience feel for their mortal soul. My audience is everyone because
everyone has an expiration date. I
wish to bring mortality into recognition for them so that they might live a
more full life. I will accomplish
this by sculpting the human figure out a various materials that express human
mortality and the vulnerability of the human body.
I
plan to use sculptural materials that are uncommon in sculpture but help build
on the concept of the vulnerability of human life. I would like to experiment with ice and nature but I do not necessarily
want my thesis work to be a time sensitive piece. Other materials I intend to build with include thin plaster,
wax and fabric. My goal is to
experiment with working away from realism and trying to be more expressive and
abstract with the human figure. I
want my intentions to be clear to my audience and I believe that the right
materials can achieve this. For
example, I plan to carve human figures of all stages of life from candles, some
of them packed neatly in little boxes while others are on display and even some
have already been used. The
concept is that each candle has a determined amount of time to burn before it
becomes melted and can be used no more.
The wick is symbolic for a person’s lifespan and the variety of people
carved into the candles will represent how everyone has a set amount of time on
this earth.
The
majority of my past work includes the human figure and the skeletal
structure. I have worked mostly in
sculpting bronze, clay and steel but I have also completed art in drawing,
photography and printmaking. In
all of those mediums I have made art about the human figure. Therefore, I have a very detailed and
definite understanding of portraying the human figure, which is a great
strength for my thesis work. I
have learned that my best work is done when I can use my bare hands to mold the
medium, such as with clay and wax.
My
goal for the fall semester is to make as many sculpture pieces as
possible. I want to push the
limits for myself and make sculptures of various sizes and mediums. This way I can find what I’m most
comfortable with or possibly discover something new that works best for me and
allow my thesis artwork to be the best that it can possibly be. I want my audience to connect with the
figures I sculpt and see their lives represented for them.