Concentration #5

Artist Statement

Tic Toc World Clock

This was out last concentration for 3D and I decided to take on a new material. I wanted to try the glass fusing technique that Ms. Medsker had just introduced to us. For some reason, the only thing I wanted to make was a glass clock that looked like the world. When I first got the idea, I hadn't realized that it was actually a pretty hard task to handle. I frustratedly cut a square of glass into a circle and then tried to drill a hole through the middle for the clock hands to go. This was where I found some struggle; it was basically impossible to drill a hole through the glass the way I was doing it (which was definitely wrong). I would've liked to keep trying with the glass clock, but I didn't have much time to finish the project so I decided to change my material. I made a clock out of cardboard, magazine clippings, yarn, and plastic hands. I cut out a piece of cardboard into a circle, drilled a hole through it, and glued blue/green magazine pieces onto it. I spent a while choosing images and cutting them into little triangles that fit into one another nicely. After gluing the pieces and grouping them by color, I still wasn't satisfied that you couldn't tell the clock was the earth. Then, I traced the outlines of the green in 3 different colors of yarn and a white paint marker. The last step was painting and screwing on the clock hands which was actually the easiest part of the whole thing.

I wish the glass clock had worked out, but I think I did a good job problem solving and finding new materials at the last minute. My clock represents my concentration of plastic because it speaks to the current worries about our overuse of it. Recently, a lot of people have seen the effects of plastic/ manufacturing plastic and how it's effecting climate and our world. The clock sort of represents time running out. I got the hands of the clock from an old one that was laying in some dusty corner in my house and I think it shows how we can reuse instead of throw away. I also had a purpose with where the hands were on my clock. I put them at 2 minutes to midnight just like on the Doomsday Clock. I just recently learned that the Doomsday Clock was created by a group of scientists that are using it to show the world how long we have till "catastrophe" and it's now closer then it has been since 1945.