Project description/assignment. Create a dynamic, ungrounded, 3-D image on a Tyvek suit, using magic markers, that tells a story. The image should draw in the viewer.
Idea 1: Climate Change.
Lateral thinking:
Global warming
human element - unnatural
Industrialism and its consequences
Melting glaciers
Rising seas
Enhanced hurricanes/typhoons
Heat waves
Climate refugees
War and other resulting forms of hostility
Starvation
Dying livestock
Extinction
Burning forests
Lost rainforests
Interrupted hydrological cycle
Sketch (click for full size):
Idea 2: Desert people and culture.
Lateral thinking:
Dunes
Camels
Bedouin
Tent
Sand
Heat
Head coverings
Arabic/North African languages
The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles); Morocco, Algeria
Sheik
Oasis (palm trees, of course)
Deep wells
Lawrence of Arabia
Khaki clothing
Long rifles (WW I; wer of independence from Turkey/Ottoman Empire); Arab Nationalism; Nassir
Mecca
The Kasbah
Medina
Haj
Ceramic jars for water
Bright colors
Egyptian spice market -- Istanbul
Sketches (click for full size):
Idea 3: Two people discussing something difficult.
Lateral thinking:
Man and woman
Clenched fist
Tense body language
Subject of discussion? (Possibilities: Child, abortion, money problems, poverty, infidelity...)
Tears
Angry expressions
Table and chairs
Sketch (click for full size):
Maquette (click for full size). I decided that the second idea was the most interesting. My fellow students also preferred this one (see all the stars on one of the "Idea 2 sketches"). This is why I completed additional sketches (studies) of the content.
Finished piece (click for full size; modeled by my fellow student Eric Meldner).
Comments on the finished piece.
The final theme chosen was that of the desert and some of the artifacts of Arab culture. The sand dunes, the camel, and bowls and bags of spices on the benches in the foreground try to convey this theme. I also chose colors that I thought were appropriate to that theme. My attempts to create the illusion of three-dimensionality were less successful.
I struggled with three facets of this project. The first was the media: A tyvek suit and magic markers. This combination was challenging because of the texture of the suit, which is different than that of ordinary paper (which I'm far more accustomed to working with), especially around the waist band, which made it difficult to mark consistently. Eventually I decided to create the kind of marks I usually make when drawing with pencil.
The next difficulty I encountered was the shape of the suit itself. It tried to imagine how the objects shown would appear from the different angles suggested by viewing the suit from different directions, for example, seeing the camel from its right and left sides, which would correspond with the front and back at the suit. When I was unable to carry that out, I switched to trying to create a "wrap-around" panorama view. This also didn't work very well, since I didn't continue the camel onto the back of suit. I was able to suggest a panorama by wrapping the sand dunes around to the back of the suit.
The final area I struggled with was color. I have a biological color limitation that I've managed to either ignore or adapt to over the several decades of my life. This project required that I work with color, so I tried to adapt by using a limited set of colors, which are either pretty close to primary colors (which I can perceive as well as someone without the handicap), or are secondary colors (which I can usually make pretty good guesses about). I don't think this was a successful strategy, and I might have improved on it by a more careful use of textures. I saw the results several other students were able to produce by stippling, and I think I could have used an even narrower range of colors and better conveyed my images by combining three or four colors with stippling.
Idea 1: Climate Change.
