UWM - What A Relief
"Wall Flower" |
OVERVIEW:
Title: "Wall Flower" Dimensions: 2 ft x 1 ft Medium: Cardboard, Wood Stain, Hot Glue Date: February 2024 EXHIBITION TEXTThe "Wall Flower" represents me and my two sisters since all three of our names have flowers incorporated in them. I created this wall relief to represent the presence me and my sisters have in our home, creating something as delicate as a flower out of cardboard represents something to delicate and so rugged. The term "wallflower" means someone who is shy and typically sits away from the crowd. I had an alternative meaning in mind, a literal wallflower would be something beautiful growing from a wall but it looks like it doesn't belong there, no one expects a flower to grow from a house wall, this represents me and my sisters perfectly, each of us is unique, creative, and out of the ordinary, not what's expected. The relief is created out of cardboard, hot glue, and wood stain.
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INSPIRATION
Goga Tandashvili:
Goga Tandashvili is a Russian artist, he uses carving tools and plaster to make wall reliefs that usually have a floral inspiration. He uses an impressionist style and is particularly noted for the fluidity of his art. I first found Tandashvili on Instagram, I particularly liked how his art felt like it was growing right out of the wall. He creates very intricate lines and uses negative space to create 3D shapes. My favorite thing about his art is how he makes the plaster look so natural, the fluidity of the shapes and lines are so flawless it's crazy to imagine it was made from anything other than real flowers. I mainly used the rightmost picture for inspiration because of it's zen look and focus on the flowers in the center.
Goga Tandashvili is a Russian artist, he uses carving tools and plaster to make wall reliefs that usually have a floral inspiration. He uses an impressionist style and is particularly noted for the fluidity of his art. I first found Tandashvili on Instagram, I particularly liked how his art felt like it was growing right out of the wall. He creates very intricate lines and uses negative space to create 3D shapes. My favorite thing about his art is how he makes the plaster look so natural, the fluidity of the shapes and lines are so flawless it's crazy to imagine it was made from anything other than real flowers. I mainly used the rightmost picture for inspiration because of it's zen look and focus on the flowers in the center.
PLANNINGI started this project knowing who my inspiration was right away so I started doodling flowers and different zen designs. I was drawing inspiration from the garden me and my mom had when I was little and my family's love of flowers. Me and my three sisters were named after flowers so I drew out a "flower dictionary" of the symbolism the flowers hold for me. To the right are my first drawings, I wasn't trying to be very professional on these I just wanted to get a feel for what I wanted my relief to look like. I eventually decided I really liked the drawing I have in the rightmost image towards the top. For this piece I really wanted to create something that worked with shape and form to make the cardboard look alive, as if it was growing off the wall.
Above is an attempt at drawing realistic looking flowers based off of the flowers I put in my "flower dictionary", I used this drawing to create my final drawing of what my relief will look like. At this point I decided that I wanted to use paper mache made out of cardboard (I will make the paper mache) to create the smooth lines for the flowers.
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Above are my final planning sketches, the first image (on the left) being my "flower dictionary" with drawings of the most relevant flowers from my memory. I then (on the right) created a sketch of what I want my final piece to look like as well as a side angle of it. I chose to make a Rosa Rugosa the center flower since my dad's side of my family lived in Thailand and when we visited a few summers ago it was the flower I saw the most which is now what I associate that memory with. In my side view I created I really wanted to emphasize that the flowers are growing off of the wall so I created the spiral shapes to bend towards the wall pushing the flower away from the wall.
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PROCESS
The pictures above are the pieces I cut out to create my relief. For the flower, I had to layer five layers of the flower shape, then cut out oval shapes to place on top of my layers to give the flower dimension. Finally, I created a center for my flower (the pistil) by cutting out a larger oval shape then cutting out small holes inside the oval. For the vines and buds I cut out the general shapes I wanted in 2D out of cardboard, then I used my cardboard cutter at a smaller depth and created score marks where I wanted to bend the shapes to make the vines and buds pop off of the base of the relief to add dimension to the piece. I had to use some glue to fix some of the cutting mistakes I made at first to make the shapes look a little more presentable.
I used wood stain to stain my cardboard and add more depth to my piece. To create the different shades I just added more layers for the darker portions and less layers for the lighter portions, for some of the vines and buds I did not add any wood stain. After I had completed my wood stain process I began to cut out my flower shape with a scissors to get the larger pieces then I used a box cutter to cut out a more specific shape around the flower, bud, and vines.
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This was the final cutout before I hung my piece in the gallery. I did some last minute adjustments like adding a cardboard piece with a hole cut out to hang it with a nail. I also re-bent some of my buds and vines to maintain the 3D shape. I let my flower dry overnight before I moved it again to let the glue and woodstain dry.
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EXPERIMENTATION
I attempted to make my own paper mache out of flour and water. I found a recipe online for a non-bake paper mache and bought thin paper. When I first attempted making the paper mache it wasn't the right consistency so I had to remake it three times. I finally got the right consistency and moved on to the next step.
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Note: The paper mache did not work, it was a little disappointing but I realized the wood stain actually looked better.
The paper mache was not successful and I didn't want to risk ruining my piece by trying to make the paper mache work so I moved on to other ideas I had. I remembered we had wood glue so I used that in part of my final process. Overall, I feel that I actually got to experiment with materials on this piece, it's not often that my plan doesn't work, I had to think of solutions to my problem and I learned a lot about fixing a mistake.
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COMPARISON
The floral theme in my piece and Tandashvili is very similar, both my and my artists pieces are very fluid and have a zen feel. My goal was to capture the movement of Tandashvili's flower relief and incorporate the spreading vine look in my cardboard relief. I used Tandashvili's technique of building off of one central object, in this case I decided to put the attention on the flower in the middle. I then began to spread the vines off of the flower which can also be seen in Tandashvili's floral pieces. Since I was not working with plaster as Tandashvili was, I could not create the natural darker parts of my relief and therefore had to resort to using wood stain however the focus on creating that contrast was the same in both my piece and Tandashvili's piece. Tandashvili's floral pieces feel as though they are growing straight off the wall, I attempted to recreate this feel in my relief with the spreading vines and flower buds. Lastly, I contrasted some flatter areas of my relief with more 3D elements of my relief like the center flower, Tandashvili does this in his relief as well, it creates a pathway for the eyes of viewers. My piece has similarities to Tandashvili's relief however there are differences, the major difference being material. I was limited to cardboard for this piece while Tandashvili used plaster to literally sculpt his relief from the wall, since plaster is a little more fluid and can be shaped into anything Tandashvili was able to get a more fluid relief. Another difference can be noted in the simplicity of my piece and the tedious detail in Tandashvili's relief. My technique for creating my relief was to layer cardboard on top of each other while Tandashvili was able to sculpt out a flower shape and bend it easily off the wall. Overall, my relief is similar to Tandashvili's relief but there are a plethora of differences that make my relief my own.
REFLECTION
Wall reliefs usually aren't my area of expertise, when I first received the directions for this project, I was concerned because I am a painter so it was slightly daunting to take on a project that I really didn't have any experience doing. I struggled cutting cardboard and had a new set of rough hands after this project but I think working with cardboard to create a relief taught me a lot about creating a delicate object with harsh materials. I discovered that material has meaning and that it can be used to the artists advantage. The contrast between my object being a flower and my material being cardboard deepens my meaning. I created this piece to represent me and my two sisters since my parents incorporated flowers in one part of our names. The wallflower represents how my home has always included the presence of flowers, including me and my sisters, creating a flower out of cardboard is something me and my sisters would have done when we were little and were playing around the house, cardboard is a very present thing in anyone's home and it an easy material for children to use to create art, games, objects, etc. I enjoyed learning about how to create a 3D object since I hadn't explored that part of art yet. My favorite part of this piece was staining the cardboard, I felt I was able to include a part of my familiar art style which was painting (using a brush). Overall, I was able to create a wall relief based on my inspiration and learned about how materials are an element in a pieces meaning.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- I was able to replicate some elements of Tandashvili's technique and use the central theme of flowers which was also based off one of Tandashvili's reliefs. I kept the fluidity and movement of Tandashvili's relief in my relief.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The research I did on Tandashvili was to gain knowledge on his art style and how he creates his reliefs. The website I looked at was an article on the work of Tandashvili and from my standpoint was not biased.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-I realized during this piece that materials are important in the meaning of the piece, the use of cardboard added to the meaning of my wall relief.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- I researched Tandashvili's style and how he creates his reliefs as well as discovered his love for nature and the portrayal of it in modern day buildings.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I came to infer that the materials artists use greatly impact the movement, contrast, and meaning of a piece. In my case it was harder to create the fluidity Tandashvili had in his relief but I was able to create just as much meaning with cardboard.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- I was able to replicate some elements of Tandashvili's technique and use the central theme of flowers which was also based off one of Tandashvili's reliefs. I kept the fluidity and movement of Tandashvili's relief in my relief.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The research I did on Tandashvili was to gain knowledge on his art style and how he creates his reliefs. The website I looked at was an article on the work of Tandashvili and from my standpoint was not biased.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-I realized during this piece that materials are important in the meaning of the piece, the use of cardboard added to the meaning of my wall relief.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- I researched Tandashvili's style and how he creates his reliefs as well as discovered his love for nature and the portrayal of it in modern day buildings.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I came to infer that the materials artists use greatly impact the movement, contrast, and meaning of a piece. In my case it was harder to create the fluidity Tandashvili had in his relief but I was able to create just as much meaning with cardboard.
Bibliography
https://mymodernmet.com/goga-tandashvili-bas-relief-sculpture/#:~:text=Russian%20creative%20Goga%20Tandashvili%20adds,integrate%20seamlessly%20with%20their%20surroundings.
https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/no-cook-paper-mache-paste-recipe-1253087
https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/no-cook-paper-mache-paste-recipe-1253087