Maxine Whiteley

Midterm Artist’s Statement

March 25^th, 2013

Design II, FN102.03

Heather Ujiie

            Working as a design team for my modular relief  project could not have been more successful.  I have never worked with another person to create art but my first time was so successful that I would defenetly try again.  I believe that what made working with Claudia so productive was the combination of our skill sets. I have a fine arts background and she is a talented dressmaker which allowed us to have the best of both worlds. Our concept changed as we started to construct the dress because our ultimate goal was to create a art-to-wear garment in which the relief sculpture appeared as a fabric. We faced a lot of challenges that required us to change our “wedding dress” design but now, as a finished product, I believe it is more successful than what we had originally planned.

            I was excited to learn about serial planes because they introduced e to a whole new way to create form. I’ve always preferred curvilinear shapes as opposed  to geometric but when creating serial planes I preferred the geometric example. I struggled with the vertical composition and could not get the foam core to cut with a clean edge so I used bristol for mine. My curvilinear foam core sample structure was difficult for me because the foam core was so limiting. I struggled to find a concept and I wish that I could have made the piece for successful and unified. I am interested with the idea of scoring foam core but in the future I think I should place more attention to making a multitude of cuts rather than properly measuring the cuts.

            I struggled greatly with the architectonic sculpture. I had a strong concept but construction wise I couldn’t quite create what I had originally planned. I was working of the original theme of architecture. I loved the appearance of spiral architecture, and wanted to would to build a building of spirals that worked as serial planes did. Again, I struggled with the construction.  I eventually lead my project in the direction of deconstructed architecture. I am so pleased with my sculpture so far and do not want to ruin it rushing the transparent element. I want to hear ideas from the class before I continue. I’m currently playing with the thought of  putting the whole sculpture in a bubble. A transparent dome over the whole project may add a more volumetric feel. I’ve also wanted to explore floating the sculpture in an organic transparent form filled with water.