03. Wearable Sculpture

Artist Statement:

Describe: For this piece, we were tasked with creating some sort of headdress/hat; either using materials that you wouldn't normally use in a hat or something you wouldn't image as a hat. I decided that for my piece I would create a ‘bird’ inspired piece. Really looking to exaggerate the features of the bird, I put most of my focus and work on the beak and eye sockets of the mask. Starting out with a base made of cardboard, I just built up around that. Layering, cutting and shaping the cardboard and made the basic structure that I was looking for. Painting the cardboard black so that it looked for solid, I then been to layer my black feathers around the sides and up onto the top. Placing the feathers that they would fall the same way that normal feathers on a real bird, I then began to layer my eye sockets and bird beak with brown felt. The final material that I used was the clear plastic for the eye lenses. The texture was a huge thing for me in this piece, wanting to bring a wide variety of materials but still have then blended together well in some way; showing the most clearly in my feathered head and more natural felt coverings. And whenever you're creating a 3D piece you’ll always be using the element of form in your piece.

Analyze: Compared to my first sketch of this piece, the whole project has changed quite a lot over time. In the beginning, I was actually going to be going for a much brighter color scheme, originally going to center my piece around the colors red, orange, and yellow; much different from the black and brown base my final piece now shows. Besides having a drastically different color scheme, there was also small changes to the actual form of the mask. My beak originally was going to me much more stout and square, the longer hooked beak coming close to the end of this project, and the black cap with feathers on top covering the head originally didn't exist, my first sketch of this piece having an open-air design instead.

Evaluate: This piece, though changed a lot over time, I think still holds and same feel and message that I was going for. From the beginning I wanted to create something that gave off a slightly childish feel, something that you could perhaps remember wearing sometime during your childhood, but also have a more mysterious and foreboding feel beyond that; my color change from brighter colors to black I think really helping with that. Birds are one of those species who you can't help but be fascinated by. Potentially having traveled thousands of miles and having the power to lift themselves from the ground, they represent a lifestyle that no other species can quite achieve. Overall I’m happy with how this piece turned out, and though I had some trouble attaching the large beak to the mask, I think the final product is good. If I were to revise I might try to extend the base of the mask down more, maybe try to create a curtain or shawl feel; continuing the theme of the feathers and layering them down.