Sculpture #2

I choose to create a sculpture out of clay for this assignment. You had the choice of making a relief sculpture or one in the round. I choose to make one in the round because I felt like it would be harder to make and I wasn't too sure on how to make an intriguing relief piece. My sculpture is of an octopus sitting on a girls head while the girl appears to be in a puddle of a oil. The girl and octopus are made out of white clay while the base is made from black sculpey. The girl and her hair are painted with various colors of India ink while the octopus has numerous coats of yellow, red, white and orange acrylic paint. The black around the eyes of the girl is also painted with acrylic paint. The eyes, base, and octopus are each coated with clear nail polish. There is also white gel pen on the girl for more detail and super glue was used to attach the base.

The reason I choose to make this piece was that in the past I had sketched out a similar image that my friends all seemed to like. With the free choice given to use I decided to recreate the image out of clay. My first idea didn't have any message to it but once I started I decided that the piece would be about pollution. Since I was using the pinch pot method I used the eye sockets as the holes to let the air in and out. In the original idea I was going to make separate eyes and put them in afterward so she looked all cartoony, but after I made the eyes they looked kind of funny. I had also received comments from people saying they liked the eyes missing, as it gave the piece a deeper meaning. Working with this feedback I let the eyes open and added the "oil" spilling out. Overall I like this piece, especially the octopus, as it turned out great in my eyes. If I could go back and change something I would change the shape of the head, like make the eye sockets smaller or give her a smaller chin.