Video of My Sculpture: Behind the Mask

 Gary and I made this video for the sculpture: Behind the Mask. Our idea was to make a one-minute-long video for the sculpture which is on display in the Kingswood hallway. We will create a QR code (a certain kind of barcode) for the sculpture, and people can scan this code using their Smartphones and actually watch this video on their Smartphones while they are examining the sculpture.      

It was a cool experiment, and we had a lot of fun making the video. A big Thank You to Gary for making this wonderful video and Joe for helping me firing the sculpture. 

Hope you enjoy it!

Sketches for Fun

Here are some sketches that I use to decorate the wall in my room. They are random sketches from the past. I keep the habit of signing my name and the date on every drawing so you can actually see when I made them.

JUST A FUN FACT: the cursive signature on my sketches is my Chinese name: 江帆. I designed this signature in 6th grade because I believed I would sell my drawings for millions of dollars one day! Just kidding... However, after I finished my lectures about "the Dream and the Future" in Chinese middle schools, some students came to me and asked me for my "autograph"; that was the first time my signature was actually put to use. I felt so honored...

The sketch for the metal skull of my sculpture: Behind the Mask. I used it to study the 3D structure of the skull.

 The reason I started learning sketching was that I was so interested in Japanese Manga that I wanted to become a cartoonist when I grow up (of course my dream has changed now!).

A cartoon version of Michael Jackson.

This sketch is for the snow sculpture I did last winter. I have the tradition to make one snow sculpture every winter. If I have any chance to create another one, I will probably make a Steve Jobs or Marilyn Monroe!

Another unfinished sketch of Michael Jackson. This quick sketch took me about 10-15 minutes; I just laid out the basic structure and shadows.

Unlike drawing intensely and consuming hours on one single drawing, quick sketches help you catch the movement and the 3D structure of an object. My old drawing teacher used to make me do one quick sketch every day because "practice makes perfect"!

I hope you enjoy these sketches!

Sculpture Project: Cry

I'm in Sculpture Studio this year and my new sculpture project is called "Cry", which was inspired by one of my unfinished sculpture.

For this one, my idea is to create a movie setting and the theme is about the natural disasters. The crying baby's face emerges from one end of a board, and there will be a little hand stretches out in the middle trying to grab a new shoot, which symbolize the hope, on the other end of the board; the whole surface of the board will be covered with soil, grass and building remains just like the earth surface after an earthquake.

How did I come up with this idea? Different artists have different approaches to their art; I use pictures as inspiration and combine various features on several pictures to make the final design. It is sort of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle; you search for clues in individual pieces and form the whole picture in your head. For Cry, I first thought I was going to take the previous sculpture (a wax crying baby head) on to another level. I went on google and found pictures of crying baby, baby's hands, a new shoot, and earthquake surface. Once I got the pictures, I thought about ways to combine these elements in order to make the scene as dramatic as possible. The advantage of sculpture is that, you materialize a idea into something which can be observed and touched, and maximize its dramatic features in order to give a direct, strong impression. This is the power of image that word can not convey.

The most exciting part of the sculpture is the tortured baby face because this is my first time making face with such strong facial expression using clay. To my surprise, the face was not that hard to make and I felt how the muscle structure moved under the baby's skin once I touched the clay.

This is my third clay head, and I begin to feel a strong connection with this material. The clay becomes part of me as my fingers slide on this cool and smooth object.

Sculpture room has become a place for me to temporarily escape the craziness of Senior year and spend time to meditate in solitude. The clay has the power to calm me down.