Assemblage

I created this work with the goal of a having a 3D work, covered in the material of my choice.

I started this process by thinking of my subject, and I came up with an octopus. I then immediately began using the snowball method with newsprint to cut, crinkle, and form the paper in the my necessary shape. After forming each tentacle, I wrapped it in strong wire to uphold its structural integrity. I then crinkled a bunch of newsprint into a ball to form the head of the octopus. During and after the forming of each part I wrapped excessive amounts of masking tape around the paper in order to keep its shape, and keep it dense so that it wasnt that squishable, and so it would also be easier to insert tacks. Once I was done with the armeteur, I had to figure out the best, and most stable way to attach all 8 legs into the body. I quickly discovered that the head of my octopus was not large enough so i first had to enlarge it by adding more paper. I found that the best way to attach the legs was using a mix of hot glue to achieve the initial attachment, but then I would go over the seam with copious amounts of duct tape. After the armeteur was complete, the rest of this project was pretty straight forward, or so I thought. The difficult part was only trying to size the scarves correctly and trying to make it look good. I covered each tentacle in an old scarf and secured it with many tacks. I then covered the head in another scarf.

Something I should have done differently was leaving an awkward gap between where the tentacles attached to the head. I failed to recognize that gap would exist, and instead of dealing with it in an innovative way, I just threw an intact scarf over the glaring red duct tape in hopes of it not looking to terrible. Unfortunately it did not look the best, but I ran out of time to fix it. Something I need to work on as an artist myself is perseverance, dedication, motivation, and focusing, those of which I struggle with in almost every aspect of my life.