Karli's Gallery

Family Sculpture

There are 5 people in my family who are represented in my sculpture.  I feel like I’m a lot like my dad in some ways because we are very similar in the things that we enjoy but I’m more like my mom when it comes to being around other people. Peyton is kind of like my opposite in that way because she’s like mom in the things that she likes to do but like dad socially. Ellis is kind of different because she’s not really like any of us except for her personality. Other than that she’s a black sheep. My personality is very outgoing with people I know but shy from others and I can struggle pretty bad sometimes with my mental health. My dad is very socially outgoing. He is very kind and hard working. He is creative and artistic and likes to do things his own way. My mom is kind of shy and nervous around new people but once she is comfortable she is very outgoing and funny. She can be creative when it comes to solutions and she is very smart. She is so caring and kind as a person and always is thinking of others. My little sister Peyton is very outgoing. She can be friends and get along with anyone. She is kind of lazy but she does a lot of sports and extra curriculars so she stays busy. My little sister Ellis is really dramatic but sometimes she can be sweet. She’s really sensitive but It’s not her fault it’s just because she’s young. My parents get along sometimes but sometimes they don't. Me and Peyton either get along great or do not get along well at all. Me and Ellis get along well most of the time. Ellis is definitely the baby and I’d say that I am the elder because I take care of my sisters sometimes. I would say my mom is the caretaker. My dad would probably be like a provider. Peyton would be sloth. I’d say my family is different because we all communicate really well and it’s only girls. I feel like we're a lot more accepting of each other and other people than most families. 

 I made my dad’s shape the biggest and most complex because he’s really complex. I made Ellis a negative shape because it made her different from everyone else. I made mom’s shape really simple because her shape holds  everything up. Without her shape every other shape would fall over. I made my own shape of a rounded type diamond and I made it kind of small because I feel like I’m not really that necessary. I made Peyton not that big and kind of complex because she does a lot of sports and that reminds me of her. I made my shape rounded because I’m not very mean and then I made Peyton’s shape very pointy because she can be really mean. I made my dad’s shape kind of like a pedestal. It's kind of rounded at some spots; the majority of it is  like a trapezoid. My moms is just like a box with a slanted side. Ellis’s shape is all rounded and then the top is flat. Ellis and my shape is organic and then Peyton, my dad, and  my mom are geometrical. My dad’s shape holds up Peyton's shape higher than everyone else’s because she’s his favorite. My mom’s shape holds all the other shapes but you can see a crack in her slanted side showing her and my father’s complicated relationship.   Is there negative space between your shapes/forms or are they dependent upon one another for stability. My sculpture has a lot of negative space in it to represent many different things. The distance between me and my dad’s shape shows how I have a hard time connecting to him like my other siblings do. My parents are very close together but there is a crack in between them. Peyton is closest to my dad’s sculpture. Some asymmetrical balance can be seen by the negative part of my dad’s shape and then my shape. On both sides there is something out of it. The colors of the sculptures don't mean that much but I made my sculpture a contrasting color to my dad's because they are about the same color in black and white but with color they are opposite. The same thing goes for Peyton and my mom’s. 

I think my craftsmanship played a big part in the development of my sculpture. I worked with just the right amount of haste for it to work. The form itself of my sculpture without the paper mache had a lot of thought and math put into it. I tried my best on the paper mache and I think it looked pretty bad but that’s okay because it’s the thought that counts.  I think the best qualities of my project would have to be the expressive ones. I just think my artwork has a lot more to say than other sculptures and I love that about it. I feel like you can really tell the meaning with my reflection included. I really struggled with the paper mache part and painting. With painting I had a limited amount of colors. With the paper mache It was the clumps in the mixture that added unnecessary texture. I tried to make the colors bright and distracting to help and I think that worked pretty well.  The hardest part was probably building the form. I thought it was the most fun though because you actually had to put thought into it. The easiest part was definitely painting because painting is pretty simple in itself when you don’t have to make any complicated designs. Some adjustments I made were to Ellis’s shape because it was kind of hard to cut out but I loved the way it turned out. I also made my mom’s sculpture less long to save time and materials.   I would love to make this sculpture larger and add more detailing to it to extend the meaning and sincerity of it all. I wish I could’ve shown more personality in it all. I think it definitely shows a great communication of ideas. I feel like you can really tell what I’m trying to say in this artwork and I really enjoyed the whole process.  

Another art form I could compare this to is the film Cheaper By the Dozen 2. Cheaper By the Dozen is a family movie with many critically acclaimed actors and is about a married couple who has 12 children and they are really sad because they feel like a lot of their kids are growing up so they go on a vacation to a nostalgic lake house from the kid’s childhoods. At the lake the father who is played by Steve Martin is reunited with his childhood rival who is played by Eugene Levy who has 8 kids. The rival father has 8 kids and the thing that they are so divided about is the annual competition for the labor day cup. That is a competition between many families in lots of different fun summer time activities like volleyball, egg toss, sac racing, ect. The thing is the father of 12 has never beat the father of 8 in the competition. The 8 kids and the 12 kids end up becoming friends and the families have a lot of fun together despite their father’s rivalry. The thing about the father of 8 though is that he is very strict with his kids and isn’t very accepting of them having fun unless it’s to rub it in the father of 12’s face. So his kids are very secretive and go behind his back and get into trouble. The father of 12 is very accepting of his kids and they are honest and responsible. I think this correlates to my family because my parents are really accepting of me and not that strict so then me and my siblings are kind and accepting to others and also responsible and honest.