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ariabeckford

"Smile Cry"

Volumetric Cardboard Sculpture



When developing the idea for my Volumetric Cardboard assignment I had lots of concepts come to mind that I wanted to explore. Ultimately I rested on an idea that displays the highs and lows of life simultaneously. "Smile Cry" is a phrase I often use to describe mixed or feeling conflicting emotions at once. I chose several shades of blue to be representative of sad or depressing feelings while the yellow, orange, and colorful polkadots depict feelings of joy and upliftment. The way they come together with the downward facing trianglar prisms and the upward facing moon shape are representative of the interesting experience of feeling very different emotions all at once.


*Final pictures coming soon*






 

Artist Inspiration


Will Nash

North Wales . Artist and sculptor

Will Nash’s sculptures can be described as “ongoing explorations of mathematical forms. What I admire in his work is the repeating sequences of planes and angles that create a look similar to perfectly folded origami. As well as the sturdiness of a solid base despite the pieces appearance of movement.


Tri Isosceles (’17)-Zinc plated steel


Egon Digon

Italian Sculptor

What I admired about this artist work is his way of interacting multiple forms. The way that he his carves his pieces to create relationships between the different forms is almost dreamy. I imagine this style of distorted geometrical figures would be very difficult to replicate but I do enjoy the aesthetic. The half moon shape's interaction with the 3 triangular prisms in my piece was inspired by the work of this artist.

Rebel (‘19) wood


Darl Thomas

American Steel Sculptor

Darl Thomas’s sculptures interested me with the artist use of positive and negative space. The negative spaces in his sculptures catch your eye as much as the positive. I also liked the use of height to create levels within his pieces and the contrast of light and dark earthy tones.


Cancel The Manhattan Trip

Aluminum, brass, copper


Josecho Lopez

Artist and Designer

This was another artist that intrigued me with their ability to create relationships with multiple figures and forms so beautifully. Josecho Lopez’s pieces include precisely defined shapes while also making great use of negative and positive space.


Armilar (’21) wood


Hal Busse

German Artist Sculptor

I was drawn to Hal Busse’s abstract geometrical shapes and use of color. Her pieces give me the nostalgic feeling of old school gaming like snake and Tetris with the placement, design, and movement of the different color blocks. While also demonstrating a lego or building block aesthetic with the different 3D geometric forms stacked upon one another.

Untitled (’57) plywood


 

Proposal



The first slide are my initial ideas. The 2nd slide is a picture of the final sketch of the design I decided upon. I created a small scale Marquette of the final sculpture using cardboard paper (not pictured).


 

Process


Materials:

  • Bristol Board

  • Exacto knives & replacement blades

  • Hot glue gun & glue sticks

  • Cardboard

  • Packing tape

  • Gesso

  • Acrylic paint

  • Ruler & Protractor


Once the small scale Marquette was created. I doubled the measurements on the Marquette and documented them as the new measurements for the large scale version.


I began by measuring and drawing out the different faces of the foundational Triangular Prisms.


Once those pieces were cut out of the cardboard I placed them together using Hot glue and tabs on the inside to avoid the appearance of glue throughout the piece.


The foundational triangular prisms cannot stand without each other so it was important that the last top piece(connecting the 3) was placed on last.


Once the Half moon shape and three triangular prisms were fully pieced together I began taping the edges to even out the rough unsightly sections to create a smooth surface across the sculpture.


all 4 parts were then painted with white gesso. Once dried I applied the blue, orange, yellow acrylic paint and added the multicolor polkadots before connecting the Half Moon shape to its triangular prism base with hot glue.


 

Reflection

Working with/cutting through cardboard and using math to scale up my sculpture and create proper measurements that would fit together appropriately was quite the challenge. This piece probably challenged me more than any other this summer. However I am extremely proud of the outcome wish I would've taken more photos throughout the creation process.






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