Assemblage

My main idea that guided this project was Smokey the Bear. Recently, I heard about the wildfires these past years or so. I think about the families and animals that are impacted by the fire. I wanted to make a sculpture that represented this. The use of older recycled materials symbolizes using what we have in times of despair and need. Resources weren't abundant, so this sculpture is not made of anything special. Just, water, tape, glue, and paper. I went with the rustic unfinished paper-mache look to show Smokey the Bear, beaten up, raggedy, almost deflated, so show how the impact of fires affected him. He's not Smokey the Bear, he's inhaled smoke and is injured.

My materials were paper, glue, tape, and water.

The brainstorming process included thinking of my idea first and the inspiration. As mentioned previously I wanted to base them on an environmental issue like the wildfires. This made me think about what small animal was affected and relates to these fires? Smokey the Bear! I didn't want to do an exact replica for many reasons, like showing his withered. The next step of the art process was sketching him out. I sketched with graphite from an image online, and choose my materials. The building process was long and hard, as balling up paper took a long time. Making the head shape just right and attempting to correctly resemble the arms and legs proved quite a challenge. The finished project was a paper-mache bear!