At about the 60% phase on this sculpture. The epoxy work is done. I have to resolve the eyes and the mouth. Then it is on to the base. This evening I will work on the models for the pneumatophores so that they can be fdm printed. Oce printed they will be molded so that casts can be created from them. I intend to use foam to create the massing for the base.
This was a quick concept sketch that I developed for a sculptural idea almost three years ago. In the proposal i stated that "The “Black Man Grove” series adopts the mangrove tree as a symbol of the African Diaspora. Nature has provided the mangrove with many adaptations that has allowed them to thrive in challenging ecological environments. The form of the work incorporates the tap root system and pneumatophores of the mangrove tree with anthropomorphic abstractions of the human form that resemble and allude to African Nkonde and Nkisi invocation figures. The resulting objects combine to create a testament to the resilience of nature and the human spirit."
This sketch will serve as the starting point for my work this summer and my explorations of both two dimensional and three dimensional digital fabrication processes.
It's really nice when things come together. I had fun putting this piece together. I challenged myself to build it without looking at the computer model. It certainly went together better than the first model in tag board. This paper stock has a lot more structural integrity and I will be using it to construct more paper models this summer.
I am awaiting some brush-on epoxies from polygem that I will be using to further stiffen the model in order to make it more permanent. There is a clear epoxy that goes on very thin that will stiffen the paper and another product that can be used to build up a 1/8-1/4" shell. For this model I will be using the clear to coat this model.
Joe Siepel, a fellow sculptor stopped by to talk with me the other day and began to admire the piece. He told me that he loved the numbers on the piece that are used for registration. I told him that I liked them too and that I really love the way they become more dense in the areas of high detail in the model. He made me promise not to cover them up. This study is more about the digital fabrication process and will reflect the hand of the artist and the tools that were used to create it. The numbers stay.
This work embodies the sculptural attitude that when you complete a digital fabrication process you are only at the 40% stage of the sculptural development.
When I created the original Pepakura Study I used manilla tag board. I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of structural integrity in the material. When I stuffed the piece in my car the paper lost alot of its structure and began to buckle. At one point I thought about cutting the work apart to cannibalize the parts. (I've been known to do that) the piece sat in my garage for a couple weeks until the end of the quarter.
In one of those "what the heck moments" I took it to the studio and decided to see if I could cover the paper in plaster to see how it would hold up. To my surprise it worked very well. As the legs were completed the head began to regain some of its integrity. I decided to cover the head with rigid rap in order to maintain some of the details of the underlying form. Suffice it to say I am very happy with the results.
I am currently covering the plaster with sculpting epoxy bringing to life the black mangrove tree form. The shift in scale imbue the work with more power and sculptural presence. As I was working I realized that I will be able to bring to life an earlier computer model that I created around the idea of BlackManGrove Pneumatophores.
I will be posting the progress of this work and It will be one of the themes that I will be exploring during this summer.
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