you are here [x]: Scarlet Star Studios > the Scarlet Letters > "witch" sculpture
<< before sketchbook collages
after >> artist's way: week 2

September 23, 2005

"witch" sculpture

by sven at 8:53 pm

I started this sculpture on Friday Sept 2; finally finished it last Saturday -- Sept. 17. The backdrop is black foamcore, hot-glued to a piece of wood. The stone juts out an inch or two on a dowel... I actually used a masonry bit to drill a hole into the rock. The body is photocopied from a magazine, then tinted blue with acrylics. Gretchin informed me later that it had been a photo of singer Amy Grant. The hair is a bit of frilly gift ribbon that I found in our "3D items" collaging bin. The stars are made out of sheets of foam that you can get at a craft store. I found the image of the moon online. The moon and stars also pop out from the background.

I'm really excited about this piece. As an assemblage, it reminds me a little of Dave McKean's work. Also of Maurice Sendak and Winsor McCay, both of whom I admire greatly. A sense of whimsy. ...I like taking photocopies of my own face -- a very low-brow sort of art -- and elevating them to a more uppity artform. I like the photographic element sort of being kept behind a pane of glass, because it's black and white. I like the notion of populating a universe with characters that all have my face, even though they'll all have their own identities (Malkovich Malkovich... Malkovich?)

It implies a story -- even though I haven't thought of one myself. The yarn was a last-minute addition that really worked out. I see this character as being angry/in pain, yet oddly beautiful -- offering a rope to anyone who wants to climb up. I showed it to the "Church of Art" folk last Sunday; one of them saw the stone as our badly damaged earth. Neat! Me, I'd seen it as another world, a tiny little asteroid like the one in "The Little Prince".

I've got another sculpture in the same style half-done. Very much looking forward to posting about it when it's done...

posted by sven | September 23, 2005 8:53 PM | categories: sculpture