Glass Squirrels

For my final in 3-D class, we got to use the glass studio to do sand-casting with glass. I made 5 squirrels out of glass. The final assignment was to create something with glass that related to architecture in a parasitic way.

I placed my glass squirrels on the ground in the emergency exit in a stairwell at Tyler. They didn't photograph very well in their intended location. This image is of just one of the squirrels in the Salon De Refuse (the last show for Freshmen at Tyler).

I wanted the building to be the parasite of the squirrels. This was based on an experience I had in the fall, where I found a squirrel that had been hit by a car and was still alive. The squirrel died shortly afterwards. At the time, I had recently started to photograph the birds that were dying from window strikes on campus. The city environment of Temple's campus was new to me, and I disheartened by the affect the city had on living things inside of it. I made this piece with that memory in mind.

Boathouse Row

I made this painting of Boathouse Row a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, I sold it at First Friday (an event where galleries exhibit new pieces and people sell their work by the side of the road). It's acrylic on canvas. It looked like it was about to storm when I was painting it. I decided to make this blog post to commemorate the painting and my first sale at First Friday.

Candy

This was the project we worked on in class the last day of Drawing before our final. Our teacher set up a still life of candy, cookies, and pinecones. We could approach it as a still life or as a landscape of candy.

I used chalk pastel on 18" X 24" paper. After we were done drawing, we could eat the candy and cookies. It was a great assignment.

Photos

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I've been learning photography recently. These are two images I took over spring break on color film and slide film. The film has been scanned into the computer, so I have them as digital files now.

Bunnies

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In 3-D foundations class, we learned the process of slip casting. Slip (a clay and water mixture) is poured into a plaster mold. The plaster absorbs some of the water from the slip and creates a hard shell of clay. The excess slip is poured out of the mold, and when dried, the hallow clay object can be removed. The slip objects were fired in a kiln to make them finished ceramic pieces.

I chose to cast some small plastic Easter bunnies. I created a gang mold with three bunnies inside one mold. This allowed me to make 3 bunnies with each cast. I ended up with 153 bunnies in the end.

The assignment was to organize the slip cast objects based on an organizational system we researched. After much thought, I settled on creating a political map of Pennsylvania with the bunnies. I combined a population density map with a map of the most recent presidential election results. I put the map below the balcony overlooking the basement by the photography area of Tyler. This way, one could view the map from above, and also go down the stairs to see the bunnies up close.

On-going sketchbook assignment

In 2-D, we've been making 8 sketchbook pages a week. In the end, we'll bind all the pages together. Here is a small selection of the pages I've made thus far. These pages I've selected were inspired by my trip to Alaska. The goal in making these pages is to practice and experiment using color in different ways.

Stream

My friend Josh and I went to a park outside Philadelphia recently. There, I made this painting of a small stream with rocks and small waterfalls. It's acrylic on canvas and measures about 22" X 13.5".