Mirrored - Cooper Linderfelt

Cooper Linderfelt -

I am working primarily with natural mediums for my pieces. I am trying to use materials that can be produced sustainably and reused. There is no intention to connect my pieces together. I want to see what connections can be made by the viewers without defining a connection myself. I want the viewers to create their own meanings and have their own interpretations. My goal is to explore the different effects that 3D and carved work can have on an interpretation. Each piece has more to look at and there are more physical views to see it from.

During my first year of art, I made more pieces that had a purpose and meaning behind them as I had more time work with my materials while brainstorming. I focused primarily on “Ocean Waves” as it is a very large piece and I have large ambitions for it. I don’t have much inspiration behind the creation of “Ocean Waves”, I created the work out of desire to explore the process of carving with more complex tools and on a larger scale. I explored an artist named Michael Heizer who works with Land Art. I learned to use and “flow” with the natural composition of the mediums. With my chosen medium of wood, there are lots of flaws and knots within the grain and it is important to work with them and be able to design a piece around them. My first piece, “King of the Aesir” was my first exploration into wood carving and I got my inspiration from Norse mythology. From this specific piece, I discovered that there are ways to incorporate colors into works where there wont be any painting or staining. Each type of wood has its own natural color patterns that can be incorporated by carving at different angles and depths. To create different emotion and feelings in a 3D art piece where there is no space to use colors and patterns, the texture and finish of the wood. Raw, unsanded cuts will create different emotions than smooth sanded cuts.

The second year of art came with many surprises. Many of my second semester pieces of the second year were made to reach the work requirement. Due to incidents, I lost all inspiration to create work and continue on unfinished pieces. Pieces such as “United” were started with lots of inspiration and eventually were just finished because I needed to reach the work requirement. I carved smaller pieces that were more intricate and required more time and I also explored with new mediums such as resin/wood combinations. “Untitled” was my exploration into resin. I don’t have a meaning behind the piece and I don't plan on having one, it was solely and exploration into a new artform. I find it interesting how much more detail can be added while only adding a single material. I chose these pieces because they are primarily comprised of wood. The reason behind doing most works out of wood is because it is a renewable material and can be used in many different ways. I try to show the relationship between the man made world with the natural world. Humans don't always need to be inventing new things to make something just slightly better. There are ways to interact and use the natural world without harming it and creating larger issues down the line. I feel as though, not directly implied, that the chosen pieces do express that is possible to create just as meaningful and in depth art with a, singular, less complex medium. I feel like “United” is best able to express this idea. It displays human emotion and passion without having worry about capturing that emotion within a 2D piece.

Desert Tortoise, clay, 31 cm x 20 cm x 22cm

This is the first piece where I used clay. There is little color in this piece. There is meant to be very little color, it is meant to be an earthen tone. Few materials are other than cutters and some bushes for gluing pieces together are used. For detail, on the shell and skin, I used half a dried sweet potato. I used this as I felt that I would not be able to get a natural look from hand detail.

King of the Aesir, 8.5cm x 3.5cm x 4cm, Cedar Wood

For my first piece of the semester, I intended to experiment with different tools and wood for my pieces. I decided to create smaller figurines which I learned are a lot harder than bigger pieces. I was able to use the different layers of the wood to give the figurine more depth and detail but there is/was still a lot of room for improvement. I had a few problems with finding the right piece of wood because I wanted to start on a softer piece of wood but I feel that working with the Cedar has given me more insight into how different woods will react to knives, dremels, and chisels.

Rings of Power, poplar wood, 2.5cm x 2.5cm

For this artwork, I wanted to experiment more with fine details with my carvings. I was also experimenting with the details that I wanted to incorporate into my larger pieces. This was my first time using poplar wood. While poplar wood is softer and easier to carve, I like the harder woods that take a little more effort to make a mark in it. I did these smaller pieces this week because my tools had all broken and I was only able to get them back from repair this week. I also wanted to work with indented carvings to gain experience with having to carve around other parts of my piece.

Untitled, cedar wood and resin, 15.2cm x 12cm x 10cm

This was my first artwork experimenting with resin and wood. I found it interesting finding the correct combinations of dyes to get the desired color because you can’t add too much coloring or the resin will become a solid color and when it cures it will just be a solid block of color. I had recently gone camping near a small pond and I wanted to make a little landscape similar to where I camped. It was quite difficult to do different layers because I had to wait for each different color to cure before adding another color.

Ocean Waves, elm wood, 91cm x 60cm x 60cm

For this artwork, was very confused about how I was going to incorporate space and contrast into my piece with was previously there. I was going to try charring the piece to give it a black-white contrast and that was not the greatest idea. I decided instead to cut cross-sections into the sides like how I usually would remove wood. I think that this turned out better than I ever could have thought. I wanted to keep the original idea that I had, about preserving the beauty of the ocean. It did do that but it also made the turtle and fish stand out, almost like a light among in the dark.

United, elm wood, 15cm x 12cm x 10cm

I explored making human shapes and I found that it was very difficult. It’s difficult as humanity is full of strange shapes and it is sometimes difficult to remove wood in ways where it forms to these shapes. I had quite a few difficulties in creating this piece. The wood I had cracked quite often and was very difficult to carve. I chose a dance because there is a lot of human emotion in dance. I chose the Salsa as there is a lot of passion and emotion in it.

Blade ór búss, white pine, 91 cm x 10cm x 5cm

I wanted to have fun making a piece so I decided to make a piece with no point. I found a sword out at my house from an old birthday party that was made out of a singular 2x2. I was quite interested in what designs I could add to it. I wasn’t able to add any serious details because the connecting piece from the blade, hilt, and guard caused the blade to start to crack and I didn’t want to risk breaking the blade any further.